Bayern Munich have announced the signing of defender Omar Richards on a free transfer.

Richards moves to the Bundesliga champions from Reading, having made 42 appearances for the Championship club during the 2020-21 season.

The left-back, who represented England at under-21 level, has agreed a four-year deal that runs through until 2025.

"My move to Bayern is a great honour for me. A dream has come true," Richards told Bayern's official website.

"I'm proud to be wearing the shirt of one of the world's biggest clubs. I hope I can help the team continue to be successful in the future.

"My thanks to the management at Bayern for their trust. Our conversations were very convincing. I can't wait to be on the pitch for Bayern."

Bayern sporting director and board member Hasan Salihamidzic is delighted with the latest addition to the squad as the club prepare to begin life under new head coach Julian Nagelsmann.

They had already completed a deal to bring in Dayot Upamecano from RB Leipzig, strengthening a defensive unit no longer able to call upon David Alaba and Jerome Boateng.

"We're delighted Omar is coming to Bayern," Salihamidzic said.

"Omar is a technically gifted player on the left side of defence. He finds good solutions going forward, he's very alert and we trust him to play a good role in our team."

Richards made over a century of appearances for Reading after coming through their academy. The English club confirmed they did offer the 23-year-old a new contract, but he has instead opted to continue his career in the Bundesliga.

Jamaica international Liam Moore has vowed to quit social media after being the subject of vile abuse earlier this week. 

The Reading captain was the target of a poll that posed the racist question “Should a n***** be captain of Reading FC?" The account has since been deleted.

In response, Moore also laid the blame at the feet of the social media platform.  The issue has once again been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent weeks.

"2021 and I'm not ****ing surprised in the slightest. Twitter you're as much to blame for making it so easy to abuse people,” he tweeted.

 Earlier this week, Swansea announced that they would not take part in any social media activity for two weeks, following the abuse of another Jamaica international Jamal Lowe.  They were joined in protest by Scottish club Rangers.  Arsenal legend Thierry Henry had also previously announced the decision to delete his social media accounts in a bid to direct attention to the issue.

While pointing out that he had enjoyed interacting with the fans via social media, Moore denoted the environment to be an increasingly toxic one.

"I have enjoyed engaging with many of you on here over the years but tonight was just another example of Twitter being toxic,” he added.

"You have to stand for something and for that reason I am deactivating my account. Thanks for your support."