After weeks of waiting, Adelaide United believes it’s on the verge of signing Ghanaian striker Lloyd Owusu for the 2009-10 Hyundai A-League season.
Owusu, who is currently in Perth, will undergo a fitness test and medical on Wednesday afternoon before committing to the Reds.
United coach Aurelio Vidmar said securing the 32-year-old’s services had taken longer than expected. But he was pleased the attacking player, who has spent the past couple of months on loan at English club Brighton & Hove Albion, was almost a Red.
“At this point of time we are pretty confident,” Vidmar said.
“We’ve been speaking to him for a little while and had him here for a week or so and still he needs to be 100 percent sure this is the place for him.”
“Unfortunately with negotiations sometimes they take two minutes and sometimes they take a couple of months.”
An Owusu contract will complete a hat-trick of signings for the club this week with National Youth League players Francesco Monterosso and Joey Costa earning a promotion to the senior pay roll.
Vidmar has compared Monterosso, who scored a competition-high 13 goals in the NYL, to a former Socceroo.
“He’s a bit like a Damian Mori … probably not as quick as Damian but certainly he is very strong and certainly knows where the goals are,” he said.
And he said Costa was also a player that could enhance United’s playing stocks.
“Someone who can read the game well, understands the game and certainly has the ability to be a very good attacking midfield player,” he said.
“Although still very young, we think in a couple of years we will be able to hopefully mould them into significant players at our club.”
Vidmar said Osama Malik and Shane Tobias had been other NYL players on the team’s radar.
“With Osama he was presented a contract but thought his opportunities were going to be greater at North Queensland,” he said.
“Unfortunately we can’t give everyone a contract, it’s just impossible. Shane Tobias had a fantastic year last year but for the position that Shane plays, we’ve got a lot of players in that position so what we don’t want to do, which we had three or four years ago, is overload in one position.”
Monterosso said he was hopeful his NYL experience had put him in good stead for the upcoming A-League season.
“I’m just so honoured to be actually mentioned with Damian Mori – he was such a great striker when he played in the NSL for Adelaide City and hopefully I can live up to what he did when he was Adelaide City and hopefully I can do well in the A-League,” he said.
“A good season in the youth league certainly helped my confidence, especially with all the goals I scored and also the experience of playing against top quality opposition.”
Costa said he was thankful Vidmar had given him an opportunity and added he was keen to have an impact in 2009-10.
“I’m going to do whatever I can to repay his faith; it’s amazing to play for the red shirt. I’ll work hard at training and hopefully I’ll get the opportunity,” he said.
