Former Chelsea youngster Aliu Kaby Djalo joins on two-year deal
Reds have tonight added to their midfield options by signing 24-year-old Aliu Kaby Djalo on a contract until the end of the 2017-18 season, subject to international clearance and EFL ratification.
The former Chelsea youngster’s most recent club was Finnish top-flight outfit PS Kemi, for whom he has scored three times in 27 appearances this season.
Kaby, 24, came to England in 2007 and spent five seasons in the Chelsea set-up and eventually made it into the reserve-team squad, where he worked with Reds’ Head Coach Dermot Drummy.
Since then he’s had something of a nomadic football journey with spells in Romania, Yugoslavia, Cyprus and Poland before he headed to Finland in 2015.
He has played under-17, under-19 and under-21 football for Portugal, but made his full debut for Guinea-Bissau, the country of his birth, in the 2016 African Cup of Nations qualifiers and is on international duty again this week, for a qualifier against DR Congo in Brazaville this weekend.
Dermot Drummy said: “He’s been playing at a good standard in Finland and we think he is more than capable of doing very well for us.
“He’s strong, passes the ball well and covers the ground. A bit like Enzio (Boldewijn), Kaby is desperate to forge a successful career here in England. He’s had a couple of false starts in that regard but we’re delighted to have signed him.
“We’re looking forward to him being part of our squad and competing for a place.”
