Having completed the signing of Jon Dadi Bodvarsson from Wolves a few days ago the Icelandic forward didn’t have time to hang around as he was soon on a plane to meet the Reading squad in Holland.
An undisclosed fee secured the 6’3″ forward on a three year deal.
Jaap Stam feels Bodvarsson will fit seamlessly into Reading’s system with the boss telling Official Website he’s got everything he would want to allow him to play in various roles along the Royals’ front line.
‘Jon is the type of player who can play in our system and he is able to play in a number up different positions within that system too – up front as a central striker, as one of a two or as a winger. He`s a strong runner, he`s tall but he`s very comfortable on the ball, he`s got some pace?so he`s definitely a player who will be a useful addition to our squad.’
The Iceland international, part of the squad that excelled at Euro 2016, whilst embarrassing England, will now look to follow in the footsteps of his compatriots Ivar Ingimarsson and Brynjar Gunnarsson, who had both helped Reading to Premier League promotion in the past.
Gylfi Sigurdsson, such a successful Royals academy graduate, is a current international teammate of Bodvarsson, 25.
Chief Executive Ron Gourlay added: ‘I am delighted to bring Jon to Reading Football Club on a contract that keeps him here until 2020. He is a forward who, despite only recently turning 25, has already earned in excess of 200 appearances whilst experiencing regular first team football across a range of different European domestic leagues – including the Championship. He also arrives at Reading with proven international pedigree and we now look forward to him making an impact at the Madejski.’
Further commenting, after Bodvarsson trained on his own on Sunday, due to the fact he only arrived in Holland in the early hours of Saturday, Stam went on to say he’s looking forward to his impact within the first team squad this week.
But Stam did admit the forward could take a little longer to get up to speed, he’s certainly behind his teammates fitness wise, due to the fact he hadn’t been involved in much pre-season work at Wolves.
Stam told the Official Website: ‘Jon Dadi came from Wolves and didn`t have a lot of training, to be honest. So he needs to catch up with the rest of the team. We`re going to do that this week of course, he`s the type of player that can help us out going forward with the strength and the pace that he has, and that`s what we need in the team.’
Adding: ‘Like I said before, we`re always looking for certain players with certain quality, and we need to be inventive. But in bringing certain players in, we can hopefully make a difference together with the way of playing.’
