Middlesbrough Release Rochemback and Mendieta

Middlesbrough have decided not to offer Fabio Rochemback an extension on his contract and the Brazilian will leave the Riverside, along with Gaizka Mendieta and Dong Gook Lee, this summer.

"We both feel that the time is right for Fabio to have a fresh challenge," the Boro manager Gareth Southgate said.

"I think he's just had his best season for us, while it was fitting that he should bow out against Manchester City on Sunday with probably his best performance in a Middlesbrough shirt."

The midfielder is likely to return to Sporting Lisbon, where he spent two years on loan from Barcelona before signing for Boro in 2005, and has traveled to the Portuguese capital for a medical.

Rochemback played 91 games for Middlesbrough, and departed in style by scoring his seventh goal for the Teesside club in Sunday's victory over Manchester City.

Southgate is hopeful of persuading goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer to sign a new contract at the Riverside. The 35-year-old Australian joined Boro from Bradford for £1.5m in February 1997 and has played nearly 450 games for the club.

Schwarzer's deal runs out this summer and he has so far refused to sign an extension, prompting reports of interest from a host of European clubs.

"I'd like him to stay," said the Boro manager. "He is the one in our dressing room who can truly say he has played at the highest level - in World Cups, in Europe, in cup finals and so on.

"Mark has been here a long time so he has to decide if he needs a fresh challenge, whether what we are trying to do is going to excite him, whether he feels he is going to be appreciated here."

Boro have offered striker Tom Craddock and right-back Tony McMahon one-year extensions to their current deals, which run out this summer.