Newcastle Jets’ marquee player Edmundo Zura touched down in Australia on Friday morning ready to deliver for the A-League 2007/08 Grand Final winners.
The Ecuadorian International boasts an impressive goalscoring record of 23 goals in 52 games for his former club, Sporting Club Imbabura and will no doubt prove to be lethal in front of goal alongside Golden Boot Winner Joel Griffiths.
The softly spoken Zura was a portrait of humility in front of the media and conveyed his desire to further his promising career with the Newcastle Jets in the Hyundai A-League.
“I have hope and faith that I am going to do the best job that I can do here. I am going to deliver on all the expectations that everybody has for me,” Zura explained through a translator.
“I have heard very good things about the Australian League and Australia in general,” Zura said. “I want to succeed here and work hard every day.”
Zura is perhaps as well known for his outrageous goals as he is for his flamboyant goalscoring celebrations. One of his trademark antics is to don a wrestling mask after scoring and he explained that the seemingly jovial act is in fact a tribute to former teammate Otilino Tenorio.
“I admired him very much as a person and as a player so I am trying to do the same thing that he did. So I am trying to score a lot of goals and dedicate it to him and to his memory.”
Newcastle CEO, John Tsatsimas, welcomed the player to Australia and expressed the club-s delight at having a player of Zura-s kind in its midst.
“Not only the goalscoring exploits, but the flair that will be exhibited by the player is something unique and hopefully we’ll be able to see that from the first game,” Tsatsimas said.
“Edmundo is a current International, a player in the prime of his career, he’s 24, and hopefully he will contribute significantly and greatly to the history of this club.”
Zura will begin training with the Jets on Monday.
