HFX Wanderers FC announced on Thursday the re-signing of defender Chrisnovic N’sa for the 2020 campaign, bringing back the youngster for a second season in Halifax.

N’sa, a native of Montreal, played 21 times in the Wanderers’ first year in all competitions, and distinguished himself by playing across all positions in defence, as well as central midfield.

The 20-year-old is part of a returning core group of players from the Wanderers’ first-year squad that includes goalkeeper Christian Oxner, defender Alex De Carolis, midfielders Andre Rampersad and Scott Firth, and forward Akeem Garcia.

“He plays without fear and has a huge capacity to play through the 90 minutes at the same pace from the opening whistle to the end of the game,” Wanderers coach Stephen Hart said of N’sa.

Hart later added: “He has real fighting spirit, and Chrisnovic and Alex De Carolis give us solid stability. They’re important for building a squad especially since they were here before and they know what we’re trying to achieve.”

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N’sa, a former Montreal Impact Academy product, played 1,217 minutes as an under-21 player in 2019, single-handedly eclipsing the league’s club mandate of 1,000 combined minutes for all under-21 players on the roster.

“I’m thankful and happy to be back with this team and it will be a new team and I’m ready to fight for the title,” N’sa said. “It was a good season for me but I know I can get better.”

In addition to N’sa and the group of returning players, HFX used the No. 1 pick in the recent CPL-U SPORTS Draft on left-winger Cory Bent from Cape Breton University, and its second-round selection Jake Ruby, a right fullback from Trinity Western University.

The club also added former Canadian collegiate player of the year Ibrahima Sanoh earlier this week.