EDMONTON

Seven and a half years ago, Sainey Nyassi was a teenager playing for Gambia in the2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada.

His team’s final match, a 2-1 loss to Austria in the Round of 16, was at Commonwealth Stadium.

Shortly after, he signed with the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer, beginning a seven-year stay in MLS.

Now, after a year away, he’s returning to North America, in the place where you could sort of say it started.

FC Edmonton announced Tuesday that the North American Soccer League club has signed the 26-year-old midfielder, bringing the Gambian’s soccer life full circle after a season in Finland.

“He wanted to come back to North America, and it’s now becoming a very desirable continent to play football, whether it’s in Canada with any of the MLS sides or ourselves or Ottawa (in the NASL), we’re now starting to attract a better quality of player,” said Eddies manager Colin Miller.

Nyassi, who measures five-foot-nine and just over 150 pounds, is expected to be a key offensive component for the Eddies.

“I’m absolutely excited that we have a player of his pedigree with us now,” said Miller.

FCE recently signed Icelandic midfielder Oskar Orn Hauksson, bolstering an attack that already includes midfielder Lance Laing, the Eddies’ leading scorer in 2014.

“Sainey definitely gives us a serious threat in a number of positions,” Miller continued. “He can play wide on the right, he can play up front, and he can play as a sort of (attacking playmaker), so he’s very similar to Oskar, in that he’s going to give us some terrific options now, with (last season’s leading scorer) Lance Laing on one side and Sainey on the other.”

Nyassi was only 18 when he signed with the Revolution in August, 2007. Over parts of seven seasons with the club, he made 104 appearances, including 75 starts, and scored eight goals with four assists. In May 2013, two weeks after being waived by New England, he signed with D.C. United, where he would play 14 games that season.

Last June he joined Rovaniemen Palloseura, and played 19 games, scoring four times, for the club in the Ykkönen, the second highest level of the Finnish football league system.

Still just 26, Nyassi was an in-demand commodity this winter.

“When I look at the teams in our league, I think Sainey fits right in,” said Miller. “It was very interesting, when one of the former MLS coaches found out we were signing Sainey, he said, ‘He’s a hell of a player’. And we’ve had an inquiry from another NASL team asking if it’s true that we were signing him, because they were after him as well.”

PUZZLE ALMOST FINISHED

Less than two weeks from the opening of FC Edmonton training camp, and Colin Miller is having a hard time containing his excitement.

The coach’s team, which assembles at the Commonwealth Stadium Recreation Centre on Feb. 23, has made some significant off-season moves, the latest being Tuesday’s signing of Gambian midfielder Sainey Nyassi.

The veteran of seven seasons in Major League Soccer joins midfielders Tomas Granitto and Oskar Orn Hauksson, along with goalkeeper Matt Van Oekel as FCE’s major additions this winter.

“We’ve now got, I would say, the best squad that FC Edmonton’s ever had in its existence,” said manager Colin Miller, who is entering his third season with the club, which is embarking on its sixth campaign.

Having also recently signed former NAIT Ooks defender Allan Zebie, the Eddies now have 23 players on their roster with their latest moves.

“It gives us some serious competition throughout the team,” Miller said. “We’re still going to have one more signing, I hope, before the pre-season begins or at some point during the pre-season, so I think that will be our final piece of the jigsaw at this time.”

The Eddies, who will announce their pre-season schedule this week, open the NASL spring season in Jacksonville against the expansion Armada on April 4. Their 2015 fixtures include a pair of home matches at Fort McMurray’s sparkling 5,500-seat SMS Equipment Stadium, which they toured at the end of the last month.

“There’s no question, that will be a fantastic little stadium for us,” said Miller. “It’s a perfect size for the NASL .”

brian.swane@sunmedia.ca

@SunBrianSwane