Melbourne Heart have moved quickly to replace some of the talent that has left the club this season with the signing of Australian Institute of Sport captain Curtis Good.
The 17-year-old central defender agreed to a multi-year deal with the Heart.
Having trained with Heart for extended periods over the last six months, including a short term contract as a replacement player, coach John van ‘t Schip is confident Good is capable of making an immediate leap from the institute ranks to become a strong performer at Hyundai A-League level.
“Curtis is very young of course and still has to learn a lot, but we’ve seen he has the potential to develop into a good defender for our team. We are already aware of his qualities as a footballer and we hope he can bring them to our team,” van ‘t Schip said.
“It’s up to us and to him now to further develop his skills and hopefully we can help him, but we are very happy he is coming to us.”
Having lost experienced player John Aloisi, Gerald Sibon and Josip Skoko, general manager of football operations John Didulica was delighted to bring in someone of Good’s potential.
“We feel as if we have picked up the number one draft pick,” he said. “As captain and a key central defender, Curtis was one of the outstanding players at the AIS which in our view makes him one of the most promising players in Australia.”
“Long term, our recruiting strategy is to build from the bottom up, so to be able to bring in another exceptionally gifted young player to the team to compliment our core of existing experienced players is exciting.”
The signing brings Heart’s squad to 19 players for the 2011/12 season, seven of which are under 20.
