SLIGO ROVERS MANAGER Liam Buckley has ventured to Portugal to source a replacement for John Mahon.
Ahead of Saturday week’s SSE Airtricity Premier Division opener at home to Bohemians, Rovers have announced the signing of Nando Pijnaker.
The centre-back, who turns 23 later this month, arrives in Ireland on a season-long loan from Portuguese outfit Rio Ave.
Pijnaker has been recruited to fill the void left by Mahon, after the club’s 2021 Player of the Year joined Scottish Premiership side St Johnstone last month.
A New Zealand senior international, Pijnaker also represented his country at last year’s Olympics in Tokyo, where they reached the quarter-finals.
“We’re very pleased to bring in Nando,” said Buckley. “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. 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.”
Pijnaker, who was born in the Netherlands, has won four caps for New Zealand, the most recent of which saw him start alongside former West Ham United defender Winston Reid in a 2-0 friendly victory against Gambia in November.
He 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.
“The manager spoke about how he likes to play and I think it will suit me as a defender. I like to think I’ve got many aspects to my game but playing out from the back is one of them.
“My main job is defending and I’m really looking to show what I can do here. I trained with my team-mates for the first time this morning, I’m ready to play and be part of what looks like a really good club.
“Ireland as a country is quite similar to New Zealand in many aspects. I think I’ll be able to adjust and I’m really looking forward to meeting everyone and playing in front of the supporters in The Showgrounds.”
