Veteran Perth striker Eugene Dadi has been released from his contract at the club after a disappointing season so far which saw him struggle to break into the Glory’s first team.
Dadi, the club’s joint top scorer during 2008-09 with ten goals has struggled to replicate that form this season as he dropped down the selection pecking order after the arrival of Branko Jelic and Mile Sterjovski during the pre-season.
Having been relegated to playing in the Glory’s National Youth League side, where he continued to show his attacking wares, the 36-year-old asked the club to be released from his contract last week having played just six matches this campaign.
According to the West Australian, Dadi has flown to New Zealand to train with the Wellington Phoenix, the Frenchman’s departure possibly paving the way for former Motherwell midfielder Steven McGarry to be added to Perth’s roster following his departure from the Scottish side last week.
“Obviously Eugene was frustrated and he wanted to have another contract for another year and from our point of view we didn’t think he’d played enough games,” Glory coach Dave Mitchell said on Monday.
“When he came in, he did okay but he wants another year’s contract, so for him to further his career he’s got to do that otherwise this year will just peter out and he probably wouldn’t play many games and his career would be finished.”
“So it’s an amicable decision to let him go and for him to go further his career.”
Former Tranmere and Notts County striker Dadi played 22 games for the Glory but appeared to suffer one setback after another during 2009, where he failed to score one senior goal for the Glory.
Having starred in the club’s 3-2 win over eventual Premier Melbourne at the start of January, Dadi was released on loan to FC Vaduz in a bid to help the Lichtenstein-based club avoid relegation from the Swiss top division.
But Dadi was soon on the outer at Vaduz as he earned the wrath of his coach, former Sydney boss Pierre Littbarski, when he needed to return to Perth to arrange his Australian residency papers, the tension coming to a head when Littbarski suspended the striker for stretching without his permission during a game last February.
Dadi returned to Perth but the incident still upset him when he spoke to Sportal earlier in the year.
“What I can tell you today, is just that it was unfortunate for the off season (that I went there), that was for me a wrong destination,” he said.
Mitchell felt the experience in Vaduz may have contributed to the striker’s poor season.
“It might have done, you know,” Mitchell said.
“He didn’t have a particularly good time over there and he came back and I think he was a bit frustrated and he missed quite a bit of our pre-season. But you can never tell but he’s gone now and we wish him well.”
