English striker Stephen Hoyle is now a proper Valour FC player.

The 26-year-old wrapped up his time with New Zealand Football Championship side Canterbury United over the weekend, and, having signed a pre-contract with Valour back in December, he now joins the Winnipeg-based outfit for preseason training, some four weeks into camp.

What’s more, Hoyle is set to move some 13,000 kilometres from New Zealand to do so.

It’s a big adjustment for the 26-year-old, but one that Valour head coach Rob Gale is ready to assist with once Hoyle arrives in Manitoba in early April.

“This next week, where he gets a bit of rest, is going to be very good for him,” Gale told CanPL.ca. “We’ve spoken to him, kept in good touch.”

Hoyle’s Canterbury side fell short in the division’s semi-finals last weekend, dropping a 1-0 result to Eastern Suburbs. New Zealand’s season runs from October to March, meaning Hoyle is coming off the back of a full season’s workload.

“He didn’t quite get the fairytale ending he was hoping for with Canterbury,” Gale offered. “But this mental refresh he’s about to have is crucial. I don’t mind there’s a bit of a stop-start for him.

“We expect by mid-April he’ll have had two weeks to acclimatize to everything. Get used to the squad, start to settle into a North American circadian rhythm, that sort of thing.”

It will be interesting timing for the Englishman, who will end up jet-setting to the club’s Dominican Republic preseason stint soon after arriving in Winnipeg.

“There’s a lot of international travel involved here so we have to be aware of that,” Gale said. “It’s not any different to the other players that have come in and the staggered starts we do for them.

“Our trip to the Dominican will be a good way to ease him in. There will be some good work in there, some good weather, away from the prying eyes of everybody here.

“It will be a nice gradual introduction for him.”