Melbourne Victory have gone three consecutive matches without a goal, so they have turned to former Melbourne City star Bruno Fornaroli to help solve their attacking woes in the Isuzu UTE A-League.
Fornaroli was a free agent after he and Perth Glory agreed to mutually terminate his contract on Friday.
The 35-year-old – Glory’s leading goalscorer in each of the past three A-League Men seasons – had been immediately linked with Victory, who are in the midst of their longest scoring drought since 2016-17 despite boasting Manchester United great Nani, Nick D’Agostino, Ben Folami, Chris Ikonomidis and Tomi Juric.
And Fornaroli, who left City at the end of 2018-19, will return to Melbourne to reunite with former Glory boss Tony Popovic.
Victory are expected to register him as an injury replacement player as the transfer window closed last month, making him available for Friday night’s game against Newcastle Jets.
“This is an exciting opportunity for me to join a Club like Melbourne Victory and work with the boss again,” said Fornaroli.
“Melbourne Victory is the biggest club in the country and to be representing them at a ground where I played some of the best football in my career is exciting for me, but exciting for all of the fans as well and I can’t wait to get started.”
There had been doubts over Fornaroli’s future in Perth after he was omitted from Ruben Zadkovich’s squad for their 2-1 win over Central Coast Mariners in Round 3 – a situation which dominated headlines in the aftermath of Glory’s first win of the 2022-23 Isuzu UTE A-League season.
Glory travelled to Central Coast Stadium without Fornaroli, claiming the one-time Socceroo was “out due to injury” when naming the squad for Sunday’s clash with the Mariners. Fornaroli took to Instagram to respond to the club with a comment which was deleted soon after, claiming he was “100% fit and ready” to travel and play with the team.
Fornaroli made two appearances this term before dropping out of the squad in Round 3.
The Uruguay-born striker spent four seasons at Victory’s rivals City, where he scored 57 goals in 83 matches across all competitions and won the 2016 Australia Cup.
“Bruno is a player who will complement our squad and supply another dimension to our final third,” Popovic said.
“His qualities speak for themselves and having worked with him in the past, we believe the environment at Melbourne Victory will bring the best out of Bruno.
“Bruno is a leader and will add more experience to the squad to help us achieve success this season.”
