Saudi Arabia’s Al-Fayha FC have begun preparing for life in the Saudi Professional League in earnest with the summer signing of Celtic and Honduras left-back Emilio Izaguirre.
The 31-year-old spent seven seasons with the Glasgow giants having joined them for £650,000 from his hometown club Motagua back in 2010.
He picked up four individual accolades in his first season in Scotland, where he went on to win six successive top-flight titles with the Hoops.
Izaguirre, who has been capped 88 times by his native country, has now signed a two-year contract with Al-Fayha for an undisclosed fee. He will don the No. 43 jersey at the King Salman Sport City Stadium in Al-Majma’ah.
In an outpouring of emotion on his official Instagram account, Izaguirre described his departure as a “very sad day” in his life, adding: “I never thought that one day I’d have to say goodbye to a club that I love so much and that gave me everything in football — all my dreams came true in my professional career as a football player.”
He thanked his former manager Neil Lennon — now the head coach of Edinburgh-based Hibernian — for “trusting” him and giving him “this fantastic opportunity.”
Izaguirre also expressed his gratitude to the staff at the club and his teammates, with special praise reserved for skipper Scott Brown.
Izaguirre is the third foreign player to join the first-team squad at Al-Fayha, where he will be linking up with Cape Verde defender Gege and Chilean forward Ronnie Fernandez.
Al-Fayha are approaching this forthcoming campaign with a new manager in former Romania midfielder Constantin Galca.
Galca has had prior coaching spells at Steaua Bucharest (2014-2015) in his homeland and Spain’s Espanyol (2015-2016). He joined Al-Fayha during this close season following a one-season stint at Saudi Pro League rivals Al-Taawoun (2016-2017)
source:Arab News