Perth Glory striker Eugene Dadi remains part of the club’s vision for next season with Coach Dave Mitchell rating the former Ivory Coast international as one of the most successful imports to play in the Hyundai A-League.
Perth Glory striker Eugene Dadi remains part of the club-s vision for next season with Coach Dave Mitchell rating the former Ivory Coast international as one of the most successful imports to play in the Hyundai A-League.
It was Mitchell that identified the big striker-s talent and brought him to Perth and the coach-s faith has been rewarded with an impressive return in front of goal.
Perth Glory-s desire for stability, highlighted by the extension of Mitchell-s contract for a further two seasons, has ensured a proactive approach to the club-s recruiting for next season and beyond and they have been in close contact with Dadi-s management for several months.
“We-re making sure everyone is informed of how I want to approach things and at this point in time I-m just waiting to see how things pan out for the season in relation to the foreign spots we have available,” Mitchell said.
“Once we know the direction our season will take, either in the finals or not then we can sit down and make more concrete decisions from there. Eugene knows that-s how we-re thinking and accepts the decision.
“He has been great for us. A lot of people questioned his age but I just looked at his technical ability, which is very good, and his finishing, which is very good.
“He’s level headed, he lights up the league, he’s been one of the best imports to come to Australian since the new competition but I’m not jumping into anything just yet,” Mitchell said.
Dadi has expressed his desire to remain in Perth and see out his playing career at the club but accepts the decision of Mitchell to focus Glory-s attention on the race to the finals.
“From my point of view I’m happy with my situation,” Dadi said while the team prepared in Sydney for a huge clash on Sunday against the Sky Blues.
“At the moment I’m committed to the end of the contract, if the club want me to stay we will sit and have a chat about everything.”
The 35 year old sits second on the Hyundai A-League goal scoring list with eight goals so far this season and is determined to lift Glory into their first finals campaign.
“We had a tough start to the season but we-re playing good football now, the kind of football we knew we were capable of,” Dadi said.
“The results are now coming for the club and we need to take some points away from home to be a threat at the end of the season.
“This week is a big game and I-m looking forward to playing against Sydney and hopefully scoring a few more goals.”
Dadi scored on his previous visit to the Sydney Football Stadium this season and after three goals in his last two outings he is sure to again be a major thorn in the side of the Sydney defence.
