Dempo Sports Club took another step forward in its bid for the Goa Football Association (GFA) Professional League title by signing Pratesh Shirodkar and is on the verge of signing former striker Jason Vaz to restart scoring goals by the basket.
Dempo Sports Club is second on the table, a point below Sporting Clube de Goa – both having played the same number of matches – and needs to resume its winning momentum that when through a lean patch after the game against Vasco SC.
Pratesh impressed with Sporting Clube de Goa under former coach Oscar Bruzon and showed a lot of distribution skill. He joined Indian Super League (ISL) through Mumbai City FC and had quiet an encouraging season before he was signed by FC Goa. However, he did not get any significant playing time with his last club.
“Pratesh has it in him to spread the game and take surprising crack shots at goal. He is a player capable of making a game exciting,” his former coach Oscar had said about Pratesh before the player had met with a knee injury.
Dempo Sports Club coach Samir Naik had been scouting for a midfielder to breach the growing gap in the team between the midfield and strikers and Pratesh could well be a good bet.
Former club striker Jason is another player coach Samir has managed to wean back to the team. Jason had left to sign for a second division I-League club in Bengaluru . With things not working out, as expected, Jason is expected to return to Goa on Tuesday.
Jason was along with Joaquim Abranches, one of the teams main scorers last season. Jason is fast and has a good accuracy in his shots at goal. He scored a couple of hat tricks for Dempo SC last season.
“I am happy to have both these players back into the set up. We were lacking in the defense and too dependent on Joaquim for goals. Now, there is breathing space for all players and I assure all our fans that we are set to oyr traditional brand of football- winning with entertaining football,” Samir told The Navhind Times.
Pratesh started practicing with the team three weeks back and his presence has boosted the morale of rest of the players, especially the strikers.
Dempo Sports Club starts its Professional League campaign on January 14 with a match against old foes Salgaocar FC at Panchayat ground, Nagoa.
