Johannesburg - Swallows FC have secured the services of promising defender Keegan Allan, the club confirmed on Tuesday morning.
The hardnose defender rose to stardom last season at University of Pretoria, inspiring the side to the promotion/relegation play-offs and the Nedbank Cup quarter-final.
Albeit coming short in both competitions, Allan’s efforts didn’t go unnoticed in the Nedbank Cup as he was duly crowned the Promising Player of the Tournament.
Perhaps that coronation was the breakthrough that Allan, 21, needed to take his career up a notch as Swallows confirmed his arrival at the club on a two-year deal plus option deal.
Allan’s prowess in defence is well known by the Dube Birds given that it was the Soweto giants who broke Allan and his teammates’ hearts in the play-offs as they retained their top-flight status.
The former Mamelodi Sundowns’ youth product will be eager to grab the opportunity with both hands as he sets his eyes on being a fully-fledged defender that could even represent Bafana Bafana someday.
Meanwhile, the signing of Allan by Swallows could very well set the tone of the club’s ambitions of distancing themselves from falling in the same trap of retaining their status via the dreaded play-offs.
After all, this is a team that knows the difficulties of falling from grace to playing amateur football as they were rescued from their ruins by chairman David Mogashoa and president Lesufi Panyanza three seasons ago.
Swallows’ return to top-flight football during the 2020/2021 season, after bagging automatic promotion under coach Brandon Truter, was one for the books as they remarkably finished sixth on the log.
However, administrative issues and chopping and changing of personnel nearly led to their demise in the top-flight last season, needing ‘’survival specialist” Dylan Kerr to keep them afloat via the play-offs.
IOL Sport