Athlone youngster pens professional soccer contract

Athlone youngster Dylan Gavin has signed his first professional contract.

Gavin put pen to paper recently for Charlton Athletic with whom he has played as an underage player over the last few years.

The Sarsfield Square youngster previously played with St Peter's, St Francis and Athlone Town.

Last season was disrupted by injury although he made his first team debut for Charlton last November when he was introduced as a substitute against Leyton Orient in the EFL Trophy. Also known as the Papa John’s Trophy, the competition features clubs from League One and League Two.

Academy manager Steve Avory told cafc.co.uk:

“I’m very pleased first of all in terms of the U23 group that the majority have either been offered a new contract or were retained within their option, so that’s all been tidied up. Then we’ve got 10 existing scholars that are going to go into that first-year pro group.

“We already had Charlie Barker, Euan Williams and Aaron Henry on professional contracts, and now have Naz Bakrin, Jimmy Appiah, Jeremy Santos, Richard Chin, Terrell Agyemang, Dylan Gavin and Mason Burstow. So there’s actually 12 first year professionals - I think it’s the highest number of first year professionals we’ve ever had. It’s going to be a young U23 group but we feel lots of potential there, an exciting group.