Foster inks deal with USL team

After leading Reno FC away from relegation in the Red Stripe Premier League, tallying 20 goals to win the top goal scorer crown in the just concluded Red Stripe Premier League regular season, Craig Foster has left his boyhood club to ink a deal with third-tier United Soccer League (USL) team Harrisburg City Islanders in the United States.

Reno chairman Russell Hammond confirmed the move yesterday, telling The Gleaner the striker is no longer with the Westmoreland-based club.

"Craig has asked for a transfer and we had no choice but to let him go," said Hammond.

"It is a serious setback for Reno, as he was always an important part of our plans in the Premier League, but I wish him the best on his new project," added Hammond.

Foster, who have been in prolific form the back end of last season and nearly all of this season, scoring well over 40 goals in the Western Confederation Super League, the Premier League playoffs, the Flow Knockout competition and this season's Red Stripe Premier League appears not to be in the plans of national head coach Winfreid Schafer and may have engineered the switch with that in mind.

The striker is already training with his new club, and has communicated his delight at the move, which according to him will make him more visible to the coach as he still wants to play for Jamaica at the senior level.

"I think moving overseas is a strategy to get him some more exposure as a young player. Many people forget that he is only 23 years old," said Godfrey Drummond, Foster's coach at Reno.

The details of his new deal were not revealed, but Foster will have familiar company in Pennsylvania, with former St George's College and Waterhouse FC midfielder Cardel Benbow also on the club's books.