Indian Super League (ISL) side Kerala Blasters have announced the signing of English striker Gary Hooper.
The 32-year-old midfielder last turned out for Australian club Wellington Phoenix. He scored eight goals in 21 appearances in A-League for Wellington Phoenix and will replace the Yellow Army's all-time topscorer Bartholomew Ogbeche who has joined Mumbai City.
“Gary (Hooper) has a natural killer instinct on the field and can score some unbelievable goals. I’m positive that our fans will soon come to love Gary for his high-level goalscoring quality. I’m very happy to have a player of such calibre join the team and look forward to working with him for our upcoming season.” Karolis Skinkys, the club's sporting director, said.
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“I am really looking forward to the next chapter in my career with Kerala Blasters. I hope my experience can help the team and I can score important goals to help us challenge for the ISL title. Can’t wait to meet my team-mates and start training for the new season," the player, who hopes to join the camp in Goa soon, said.
After a few unsuccessful trials early on in his career, his first impactful stint was with Scunthorpe United for whom he scored 24 goals in 47 starts during the League One 2008-09 season and helped his team earn a promotion to the Championship. He continued to score 19 or more league goals for five consecutive seasons.
He had a good Premier League stint with Norwich City as he scored six goals in 32 appearances during the 2013-14 season and has had several successful seasons in the second division as well.
Hooper is the fourth foreigner at Kerala Blasters for the 2020-21 season. The Kochi-based club has signed Facundo Pereira, Vicente Gomez and retained Sergio Cidoncha for newly-appointed head coach Kibu Vicuna's debut ISL season.