MELBOURNE Victory is looking to boost its squad for the final weeks of the A-League season by signing Spanish centre back Ubay Luzardo.
The defender has been trialling for several weeks with the club and has done enough to convince interim coach Jim Magilton and assistant Kevin Muscat that he can do a job for the navy blues, who have one of the worst defensive records in the A-League.
At 192 centimetres, the Spaniard is tall and athletic and has made a good impression during his period with the club, which is using the on- loan Socceroos defender Mark Milligan, who will likely return to the J-League, alongside skipper Adrian Leijer in the heart of defence.
Luzardo has been with Hong Kong club Kitchee for the past three years, having played in the lower leagues in Spain before that. He made a good impression while turning out for the Hong Kong club in pre-season friendlies against Chelsea and Blackburn Rovers last year.
Victory also has high hopes that teenager Julius Davies could help provide it with the impetus it needs as it battles to win a place in the finals later this season.
The Liberian-born youngster is impressing at training but the club is mired in red tape as it looks to seal a contract to tie the teenager to Victory for the forthcoming seasons.
''He's strong, skilful, quick and has plenty of the toughness needed in him to do well,'' a Victory source said yesterday.
Davies has had to battle almost insurmountable obstacles to get this far. He came to Perth from Sierra Leone as an 11-year-old refugee and did well with local teams before moving to Germany to play with Bayern Munich's youth team. He then moved to Hoffenheim, another Bundesliga club, before returning to Australia at the start of the year
''It's the right time to come home, because Julius has always made it clear to me his big dream in football is to play for Australia,'' his agent Buddy Farah said earlier this month.
''Hoffenheim have been brilliant, they understand the personal reasons behind this. We also believe the A-League has improved so much that it's a league which can help Julius a lot at this stage of his development. The Victory has been kind enough to let him train, and we'll see what happens.''
Victory is battling to win a place in this year's finals, an assignment most critics thought would be routine at the start of the season.
While it has been unimpressive for much of the season few will be prepared to write it off completely while it has proven match winners like Archie Thompson, Harry Kewell and Carlos Hernandez (although he is out of favour) on its books.
But unless Victory makes rapid improvement it is unlikely to see finals action. Its fate lies in its own hands, at least for the next few weeks, as it is only three points behind sixth-placed Newcastle and five behind fifth-placed local rival Melbourne Heart.
Victory faces league leaders Central Coast on Friday night in a must-win fixture, and then has to take on other top-four clubs in Brisbane Roar, Wellington and Perth Glory in the final weeks of the season.
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