Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Ross California dreaming after Texas tenure
FORMER Dundee midfielder Nick Ross can’t wait to continue his American adventure after securing a move from Texas to California to join Sacramento Republic in the USL Championship.
The former Dark Blues star, who also got married last month, is set to continue his footballing life in the States after being freed by El Paso Locomotive, where he enjoyed three thrilling years.
Ross, who made more than 60 appearances for Dundee in a two-year spell under Paul Hartley (from 2015-17) is so settled in the US that a return home was never on the cards.
He said: “I spoke to a few teams once the season finished.
“I was close to signing another contract at El Paso, but that didn’t work out.
“Sacramento were really keen to sign me. I spoke to their manager (Mark Briggs), who is English and who has been out here for a while.
“I really liked what the manager and general manager had to say about the club, in terms of the way they treat the players and the way the fans are with the players.
“They are a big club, which is well established. They won the league six years ago, so they have got a good bit of history.
“Sacramento have had a couple of bad seasons, but the manager is determined to kick on.
“They’re signing like a whole new team this year, which should be good going forward.
“They offered me a two-year contract, which doesn’t sound a lot, but clubs don’t tend to do that in this league, so it was good to also have an option for a third year. It means we can settle here for a while.
“My wife has got a job here and is going back to school to get her Masters, so we can just focus on working, including me doing well on the pitch.”
As fate would have it, the fixtures for the new campaign, which starts on March 12, have pitched El Paso up with a trip to take on Sacramento.
After Covid split the divisions to cut down on travel, it returns to one division this year.
Ross is relishing the chance to make his competitive debut against his former club.
He added: “It will be strange playing against El Paso.
“It’s a really good first game for me. I still have a lot of good friends and people I know at El Paso. It will be a good experience as well as being my first game at home, which I’m really looking forward to.
“I’ve heard a lot of good things about the fans at Sacramento. We can get between 10,000-20,000 in depending how the team is doing. I’m excited to see that, to have that strong home backing.”
Ross and his wife, Adrienna, whom he met in El Paso, are coming to terms with the distance between the two clubs.
He said: “We drove up recently and it’s an 18-hour drive. It was 12 hours to LA, stopped there for a night then it was six hours on from there. I used to think a fourhour trip to Glasgow was far. You talk about distances here, it’s like an eight to 10-hour drive. I never did that back home.”
Sacramento Republic president and general manager Todd Dunivant is thrilled to have secured the Highlander’s services for at least the next two years.
He said: “Nick has anchored one of the best midfields in the league the past three seasons.
“He is comfortable on the ball and has a calm and assured leadership style that will be an asset both on and off the field.”
Ross, who won the Scottish Cup with Caley Thistle seven years ago before his spell at Dens, believes the decision to join El Paso has paid off.
He added “It was a step into the unknown. I knew nothing about the league and hadn’t really heard of El Paso. It was a gamble, but I knew we were going to have a good team, having spoken to the club. The way they wanted to play was perfect for me.
“Sometimes in Scotland I felt the game wasn’t suited to the way I like to play. Coming here has helped me with that. It’s been a style that suits me.
“We’ve been relatively successful, being to two play-off finals and lost them. Last year, we went through the whole league season at home undefeated and only lost two games the whole season before letting ourselves down in the play-offs.
“I have improved being over here. You feel settled and grow up a bit more. I’ve always liked travelling anyway, so it’s been great and then meeting my wife Adrienna has helped me be more settled and she supports me with everything.”