Crusaders Football Club are pleased to announce that we have signed centre half Kevin Joshua on a six month contract to the end of the season.
Kevin, who is 22, and from Navan has arrived too Seaview after leaving English National League side York City and will go straight into the squad for Saturdays game against Linfield. Kevin first went to England in the 2020/21 season and played for West Brom U21’s before several loan deals in the UK and Ireland has the 6ft 6” arriving on the Shore Road ready to play at the heart of the Crusaders defence which has been rocked by injuries this season.
Kevin got involved with his first training session with the rest of the squad tonight (Thursday ) and before taking to the pitch spoke to www.crusadersfc.com about coming to Belfast and Crusaders.
“I am very happy to be joining Crusaders and I am pleased to meet Stephen and ready to get on with my job. I cannot wait to show what I have to offer and hopefully I can impress my new teammates and the Crusaders supporters with great performances and also help the club push on for the remainder of the season”
“I know a bit about the club and what they have achieved over the last few years so they have a quality that I feel I can equal with my experience across the water and between us finish the season strongly”
We also got a quick chat with manager Stephen Baxter on Kevin signing and he said “It has been a long week with regards to trawling through various markets all over the UK and trying to find a centre half at this time of the year is never easy but getting the right person at the right time takes a bit of patience and Kevin fits the criteria when running all the research and all the things he has accomplished thus far, He's 22, six foot six, quick, athletic, heads the ball and a good passer of the ball and to get him to come to Northern Ireland and Crusaders needs a little bit of persuasion and it's just brilliant how we where able to pull it all together and I would like to thank his agent and also to Kevins father for helping get it done. He has been at West Brom and York City so he has had that professional enviroment for a number of years and let's hope he can bring something to us now”
Stephen added “We have lost Josh Robinson for a lengthy period of time after his injury last weekend and two other centre halfs who have had surgery this year and will miss the rest of the season. it has been a really difficult run for us with injuries to centre backs so we are very grateful to have been able to secure a signing like this at such short notice”
Welcome to Seaview Kevin and we look forward too seeing you in Red and Black.