Asprilla, who was released by his last club Nacional recently, is still to complete a medical and will need a work permit and international clearance before he can pull on a Darlington shirt and make the step into the Third Division. Controversial Darlo chairman George Reynolds confirmed yesterday that the 32-year-old international has agreed personal terms "He has become a big friend of mine over the last few weeks and we've grown a great relationship. We've gelled very well and I'm literally over the moon with it. I'm so pleased that he's joined us," he said. "He's a Darlington player. We've agreed terms and once we get that magic stamp we are home and dry". But the permit problem could be quite a hurdle to overcome. Employment rules state a non-EU national must be a regular international player to earn money as a professional footballer within the EU region. Asprilla has only appeared in 5 of Colombia's last 14 international matches. 800 remaining tickets were on sale on Saturday at Brunton Park for the Darlington match. United have been given a total allocation of 2,000 and were reasonably confident of selling them all. The match has been given added spice by Reynolds' strange alliance with Michael Knighton in his closing weeks as owner of Carlisle and by some of his comments about the United supporters. He talked of their "parish pump mentality" during the campaign to oust Knighton. Knighton recently turned down the chance to join the Quakers as commercial manager. He claims to have had "eight or nine" job offers from other clubs, including three offers to take over majority control. Picture from News & Star |
