Jaze Kabia completes move to Livingston

Young Corkman moves from Shelbourne to the Scottish Premiership

Fri, 08 Jan, 2021 - 19:30

Martin Claffey

Scottish Premiership side Livingston have signed young Irish attacker Jaze Kabia from Shelbourne.

The 20-year-old Corkman has signed a two-and-a-half year deal at the Tony Macaroni Arena. Kabia has spent the last two years at Shels, having signed from Cobh Ramblers in 2019.

"Proud moment to have signed for Livingston Football Club," he wrote on twitter. "The hard work is only beginning. Thanks to everybody who has helped me get to this stage of my career let’s go."

Livingston host Ross County this weekend. Livingston boss Davie Martindale said: “I’m really excited by the signing of Jaze Kabia. He’s in an age category where we have been short in recent years and we felt it was important to add quality around this age. Jaze came in to train for a week or so and showed up extremely well in training with the first team.

“He has first-team football experience with Shelbourne and has scored goals in the top division in Ireland as well as the First Division. I’m grateful to the board for allowing me to bring a player in that has cost a small compensation fee but it shows the club are willing to invest in young talent even with today’s economic conditions.

“We may look at potential loan options for Jaze as I think regular first-team football is so important at this stage of his development but that’s a bridge we will cross at the end of the month. In the meantime, he will fight for a place in our matchday squad once his International Transfer Certificate comes through."

Jaze's father Jason is well known as a League of Ireland striker, having won an FAI Cup with Cork City in 1998, and played for Galway United, Waterford, and Cobh Ramblers.

Elsewhere Dundalk have continued their squad rebuild with the signing of Latvian international defender Raivis Andris Jurkovskis. The 24-year-old, who has won 13 caps for his country, arrives on a free transfer after his contract expired at FK Liepaja.

“Raivis can play at full-back, on either side,” said Lilywhites head coach Filippo Giovagnoli. “He is a really good player, strong, fast and physical. He is considered as one of the best players in Latvia and when we started to watch him, we had no doubt he was the player for us.”

Meanwhile St Pat's yesterday re-signed defender Lee Desmond and midfielder Robbie Benson ahead of the 2021 League of Ireland season.