PANJIM: Salgaocar Football Club will have in their ranks a Scottish trio for the upcoming season. After extending the contract of striker Darryl Duffy and roping in Malky Thomson as head coach, the club announced the signing of attacking midfielder Martin Scott on a year-long contract, on Saturday.
Not only will this be Martin’s first stint in the Indian sub-continent, but is coincidentally also his first move away from Scotland, where he has close to 175 league appearances.
The 29-year old is a product of the Livingston academy which also happens to be his hometown club. He made his Scottish Premier League debut against Rangers at Ibrox in 2005 and thereafter spent the next five years at Ross County where he scored a memorable goal in the Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic FC in 2010. He has since represented Hibernian and Raith Rovers in addition to having had a second spell at both, Livingston and Ross County.
“I am delighted to join Salgaocar FC, a club which I have heard a lot of about from the coach Malky and a player I know very well who plays there, Duffy. I had several offers to play in the UK this season but when the discussion to move across to India came up and that too at Salgaocar FC who have a long history in football in India and in the I-League, I was very keen. I would like to thank the coach and the management at Salgaocar FC for making this possible,” the player was quoted after signing on the dotted line for The Greens.
With the Goa Professional League regulations limiting the number of foreigners per team to two, The Greens will use the services of the Scottish duo for the State league and explore the option of adding the two other foreigners closer to the start of the I-League campaign. Salgaocar FC are the defending Champions of the Goa Professional League, having gone through last season’s campaign unbeaten.
“We welcome Martin to the Salgaocar family and wish him a successful tenure at the club,” remarked club General Secretary. Adlear D’Cruz.
