As season kicks off
Scorer of 16 goals for Serbian top flight club, FJ Proleter Novi Sad, Colovic is a speedy, left footed right winger who can play as a split-striker.
He also has a much better chance of settling in Dundalk than other players from abroad because he is fluent in English as well as Spanish.
Colovic becomes Dundalk’s fifth close-season signing, after deals were completed for Cammy Smith who joins on loan from Dundee United, Will Patching, signed from Notts County, Greg Sloggett who joined from Derry City and Darragh Leahy, the Irish under-21 international who joined from Bohemian.
Sloggett had already impressed in pre-season games, as did Leahy who although slight in size, looks a complete player, capable of challenging Dane Massey for the left back role.
The other two recruits from across the water, Patching and Smith will take time to settle and Patching’s pre-season has been unluckily disrupted when he picked up a shoulder injury on the Spanish pre-season trip.
Of course the squad was considerably diminished from last season with the departure to St. Patrick’s Athletic of Robbie Benson, who played such a crucial role in recent seasons, and Jamie McGrath, another exciting talent, who has joined Scottish club, St. Mirren.
All of the new recruits have one thing in common, they are all in their early twenties, have served excellent apprenticeships with top clubs, and if they can build on the potential that they showed at the start of their careers in football, then they will not only bring further glory to Dundalk, but could earn the club badly needed funds to invest in the ground.
It will be a new environment for all the players, a number of whom haven’t experienced the rigours of full time training and too much should not be expected too soon from them.
It will also take time for the coaching staff to assess their fitness and their ability to get to know their team mates and how their talents are suited to the system that Dundalk will employ.
Inevitably there will be pressure on the staff and players to get results from the start, for it promises to be a more competitive League this season, with other clubs, such as Derry City, Bohemians, St. Patrick’s Athletic, even newly promoted Shelbourne all maintaining that they are aiming to challenge Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers for the title.
The President’s Cup, postponed on Sunday, was never going to be an indication of how the season will go, and for that reason it will be a few weeks into the new season before the strength of the respective teams emerge.
Some of the pundits, those Dublin based, have opted for Rovers to lift the title, but then again they would predict that.