Perth Glory have announced that exciting 21-year-old striker Chris Harold has signed a new, two-year deal with the club.
Perth Glory have announced that exciting 21-year-old striker Chris Harold has signed a new, two-year deal that will take him through to the end of the 2015-16 Hyundai A-League Season.
Fresh from scoring the only goal in Glory-s gutsy 1-0 away win over Newcastle, Harold joins Danny Vukovic, Scott Jamieson, Brandon O-Neill, Sidnei Sciola Moraes, Michael Thwaite and Jack Clisby in committing their long-term futures to the club.
Originally born in Perth, the lightening-quick winger spent most of his junior football career in Queensland before eventually being picked up by Hyundai A-League outfit Gold Coast United, going on to make his debut for the club and playing 25 games between 2010 and 2012.
Harold says he was more than happy to sign on the dotted line at Glory for another two years.
“Since I-ve moved from Queensland, I-ve really enjoyed my time here and improved as a player.”
“I-ve always wanted to give something back to the club. They-ve done a lot for me and since I-ve been improving and like on the weekend, scoring goals, I want to do that all the time now, so I-m really happy to be resigning with the club.”
Harold says the Newcastle win was a huge boost for both the players and coaches after losing to the Central Coast Mariners in such heart-breaking circumstances only four days earlier.
“It-s one of the most demoralising moments that I-ve ever had in football, especially the way Burnsy was dismissed. It wasn-t ideal but as footballers we can-t dwell on that.”
“I think it was a massive for us. We really did need that. I think in terms of morale, it-s going to be very important. Just to get the confidence, not only within the players, but also the coaches as well. It-s obviously Kenny-s first win so that can give the coaches a lot of confidence to play the way they want to.”
Harold was particularly pleased with the way the side was able to battle it out as they continue to fight for a Hyundai A-League finals position.
“One of the big factors to take out of the game was we held on. A lot of the games this year, we have given the game away and given away goals in the last 10, 20 minutes and this game it didn-t happen. We dug deep, stayed solid at the back and still threatened on the counter-attack.”
Harold has only good things to say about Kenny Lowe-s introduction to the team and is hoping to continue his own good run of form and help Perth back up their huge away win with another big performance against Melbourne Heart this Friday night.
“I-d heard a lot about him to be fair because I-m pretty close with a lot of the young guys in the team and they all rave about Kenny from the NTC and I-d only heard good things about him, but since he has come in I definitely agree with their point of view.”
The 176 cm attacking-minded player has been used in a variety of positions this season – reinforcing his versatility and importance to the team.
“I-ve always been a centre forward most of my life but not all coaches are going to like my sort of player to play out there because I don-t maybe have the physicality that other players do.”
“I-ve had to make my way on the wing and I really like playing out there now but when I do get a chance, I do like playing up front.“
Harold has played nine games this season for a total of 56 Hyundai A-League appearances. Still just 21 years of age, Harold comes across as a seasoned professional rather than a player entering only his fourth year in the system.
“It is sort of weird knowing that this is my fourth year that I-ve been playing A-League football. I-ve still got a lot to learn but that-s only going to come with playing more games.”
“I suppose a lot of those appearances have been bench appearances and I haven-t really been able to maintain a string of starts together where I-ve really asserted myself in the first eleven so I suppose that makes me fly under the radar a bit.”
“I-ve been pretty happy ever since I-ve made my way back into the team this year but obviously I want to progress even further.”
