St Albans has pulled off one of the recruiting coups of the summer, landing one-time Costa Rican international Jean Carlos Solorzano.
The Saints made a splash in the NPL Victoria transfer market before Christmas, ensuring they would be competitive in Victorian soccer’s top flight, but they clearly had unfinished business, saving their best signing until last.
The newly-promoted Saints had a glaring need for an attacking machine, a striker with a long resume of goals in big games, and one with potential to win a match off his own boot.
These types of players don’t grow on trees, so the Saints had to cast the net wide before reeling in Solorzano last week.
“It’s huge for the club,” Saints’ coach Kruni Razov said. “It does send a message that we want to try and be the real deal.
“We don’t just want to survive, even though it is our main priority in our first season.
“What it will do is make other teams look at us a little bit differently.”
Solorzano has carved out an impressive career in both Costa Rica and Australia. He got his break with Alajuelense in the Primera Division de Costa Rica, where he made 67 appearances in eight years, returning 21 goals.
It was during this period that Solorzano rose from Costa Rica’s under 17s to the 20s, and eventually broke through to the national team, albeit for one appearance in 2012.
Solorzano’s form with Alajuelense was enough to convince the Brisbane Roar to sign him on loan for the 2010-11 A-League season.
There he played a big role as the Roar’s equal leading goalscorer, with 11 goals in 25 games in a title-winning season. The rest of Solorzano’s A-League career would be riddled with injuries, and included a 14-game loan spell with Melbourne Victory and 36 more games with the Roar, which signed him outright for three years from 2014-16.
At his best, Solorzano can match it with most players in the country, so St Albans is hopeful the 29-year-old can find that level to make him a household name among A-League supporters.
“If you can play in the A-League and score goals when you’re fit and firing, you’d think you could do it here,” Razov said. “He’s quick, he’s aggressive, he’s direct and he’s a goal scorer.
“You can play him out wide, which is a bit of a bonus as well.
“He can play a few roles, but he’s a goal scorer, he’s got a nose for goal.”
More recently, Solorzano has played for the Rochedale Rovers in the Brisbane Premier League. A host of offers came his way, but Solorzano decided to make the move to Melbourne to play in one of the strongest NPL league’s in the nation.
After a week of talks, the deal was confirmed last week, and the Saints finally got their man.
“Every player that we sign, we speak to them as a club, and I speak to them as the coach about where we want to go, what we want to do and how we want to do things,” Razov said. “We’re trying to build something here and make this club stronger, and he was really impressed with it all.
“He wanted a challenge, he wanted something different, he’s never been in a position with a club like ours, where we’re really starting from the bottom at this level and trying to create things … that’s what I think enticed him the most.”
Solorzano is back in Costa Rica for a week and will report to St Albans training next week.
It is not sure if he will be among the Saints for the Cro Cup tournament on January 28-29.
