Sligo Rovers have signed New Zealand international Nando Pijnaker.
The defender joins on a season long loan from Portuguese second-tier side, Rio Ave subject to international clearance.
He also previously played with Swiss outfit Grasshopper and with Danish outfit Helsingor.
Pijnaker said: “It’s fantastic to be here. It’s a move that appealed to me and my main motivation is to play matches and help the team. I know the season is 36 games plus Cup football and European games so I know a chance will come at some point and I will take it.
“I spoke with the manager a couple of times and I was impressed by what he said. He had been speaking with my agent and I felt this was a good opportunity to go to a team playing European football at a good standard as well.”
Manager Liam Buckley said: “We’re very pleased to bring in Nando. He’s done well with his country in the Olympics last year. Rio Ave are keen for him to get game time at this stage of his career so we’re delighted to have him with us this season. Nando has a lot of what you want from a defender in terms of his height, strength, his tackling and also his distribution as well. He’s coming into a new league but we feel he can do well here.
“We do have Garry Buckley, Shane Blaney, Robbie McCourt can slot in there and young Peter Maguire is coming through, but with the loss of John Mahon it was important to bring in another defender at centre-half.
“He’s come in with a good level of fitness and we’ll integrate him into the group. He’ll be ready to play from the off and it’s great to have him training with us today. I’ve no doubt he’ll be contributing over the course of the year and I can see by the conversations we’ve had that he is extremely keen to make an impact with us.”
