Stellenbosch FC striker Ryan Moon will leave South African shores for Sweden in Europe after inking a three-year deal with Varbergs BoIS FC.
The 24-year-old former Kaizer Chiefs forward is set to depart the country on Thursday as he seeks to settle in as quickly as possible ahead of the new season.
“It is always pleasing to see players follow their dreams. Ryan has always wanted to apply his trade in Europe and we’re happy for a player like that to go on and achieve what he has set out. We wish him all the best,” said Stellenbosch head coach Steve Barker.
Varbergs plays in the top flight Swedish football league called the Allsvenskan with the new season starting next weekend.
Moon will be hoping to break into the Varbergs starting eleven and help better their 11th-place finish last season.
“We’ve been working on it (Ryan’s transfer) for a couple of months now and I think people forget that when we brought Ryan to Stellenbosch, he had just come back from Scotland,” Moon’s representative, Modise Sefume, tells Sport24 exclusively.
“He scored on trial in Scotland and then it didn’t work out for him, unfortunately, as the team just signed a striker before he arrived.
“We came back because we had options on the table but we needed something that was going to be a platform for him to try and get himself back into Europe and that’s what Stellenbosch gave him.”
Moon, a youth product of Woodlands FC and Pirates FC, made his senior professional debut for Maritzburg United in 2015.
He rose to prominence at the KwaZulu-Natal side and sooner rather than later caught the eyes of the people at Soweto giants Chiefs.
The Pietermaritzburg-born striker joined Amakhosi less than a year later after making his professional debut in 2016.
In 2019, Moon joined Stellenbosch on three year contract with a guise of eventually getting a chance of European football.
Sefume added: “The guy is excited. It is a big opportunity. He really wants to get there, get going and prove himself.
“Obviously trying to get a player across into Europe during Covid has been particularly difficult.
“We’re just grateful that Varbergs and Stellenbosch have been magnificent in making it a smooth transition.”
Moon will now be eyeing to make his debut in Varbergs for the first match of the season on Sunday, 11 April against Mjallby.
