YORK REGION – York9 FC announced Friday that it has signed Jamaican attacker Nicholas Hamilton to a multi-year contract with club options, penning the 23-year-old ahead of the 2020 Canadian Premier League campaign.
“Nicholas is going to bring us a great deal of energy up top. He is a player who wants to take players on, in or around the box,” York coach Jimmy Brennan said. “He’s great going forward and clinical in the final third area; he will give us some good pace to get in behind teams.
“He’s going to give us a different dimension in our attacking phase and we’re looking forward to working with him.”
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Hamilton, who plays as both a central striker or winger, joins York out of Jamaican outfit Cavalier Soccer Club, where he scored 10 goals last season to help his team finish fourth in the Red Stripe Premier League regular season, before securing third place overall in the playoffs.
He is the second Cavalier player to make the move to the CPL this year after teammate Alex Marshall signed for HFX Wanderers FC at the end of January. Hamilton’s last appearance for the Kingston-based side was in a 1-0 win over Harbour View on January 26.
Though he has yet to be capped by the Reggae Boyz, Hamilton has attended a 20-man training camp with the national team for domestic players in 2-10, and he will aim to move up the national team pecking order by making an impact with the Nine Stripes.
Hamilton signed with York after being identified by the CPL’s centralized scouting system of young internationals (age 23 and under), which is run by the league’s soccer operations department and the 21st Club, a world class data and analytics group with offices in London, San Francisco and Singapore. He will join the team pending international transfer certificate clearances.
The Jamaican is the latest international player to sing with York, joining Brazilian forward Gabriel Vasconcelos and Japanese defender Fugo Segawa. Other newcomers this off-season include Canadians Chris Mannella and Michael Petrasso.