Veracruz (Mexico), Dec 28 (IANS) English forward Colin Kazim-Richards, who played for the Turkish national football team and Mexico’s Lobos BUAP, has signed with Liga MX club Veracruz, the team’s management said.
Kazim-Richards scored three goals for the Lobos BUAP in 10 matches, reports Efe.
The Veracruz management said the forward would join the club soon and would be ready for the start of the 2019 Clausura tournament.
Veracruz’s first tournament match will be against the Pumas UNAM on January 6.
The 31-year-old Kazim-Richards has had a long soccer career, playing in England, Turkey, France, the Netherlands, Scotland, Greece, Brazil and Mexico.
He scored two goals in 13 UEFA Champions League matches while playing with Fenerbahce in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009.
The forward played in the UEFA Europa League with Fenerbahce from 2009 to 2010 and with Feyenoord from 2014 to 2015.
Kazim-Richards played in 37 matches for Turkey and should be a big addition for Veracruz, whose manager, Uruguayan Robert Dante Siboldi, vowed earlier this week to put memories of bad seasons and payroll problems behind the club.
Veracruz must play well in the Clausura tournament to stay in the First Division.
“I plan to take it step by step. There’s a bad atmosphere, but there are also things that aren’t true. What happened in the past doesn’t affect me, it makes sense to find a starting point and put together a competitive team that will make fans proud,” Siboldi told Efe.
Veracruz is currently the worst club in the Liga MX and will try to avoid relegation in May.
The Tiburones Rojos finished 20 points behind Puebla, the next closest team in the standings.
Kazim-Richards is the sixth addition to the roster at Veracruz, which also acquired Uruguayans Sebastian Rodriguez and Cristian Gonzalez; Brazilian Nene Bonilha; and Mexicans Edson Garcia and Lampros Kontogiannis.
Siboldi took over the club in early December with a plan to change the team’s culture and start winning.
“You can’t forget what happened, it’s not easy because it hurt the reputation of Club Veracruz in Mexican soccer; however, we’re going to write a new history, we have a blank page starting when I arrived on December 5, I see players with a desire to get revenge and clean up the (club’s) image,” Siboldi said.
Siboldi, who won a title with Santos Laguna in June 2018, hopes that fans will return to his new club’s stadium in Veracruz, a Gulf city popular with tourists that boasts of a long football history.
–IANS
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