Glory sign Argentine Cordoba

Argentine attacker Matias Jesus Cordoba has signed a short-term contract with A-League outfit Perth Glory.

Cordoba has inked a contract until the end of the season with the Glory, after impressing in a brief trial at the club.

The 28-year-old – who has played in Venezuela, Argentina and Mexico during his career – has recently been at Chilean club La Serena.

Cordoba scored four goals in 26 appearances for La Sarena and Ferguson said he is pleased with the technical ability his new signing will bring to the table.

“He’s technically very good and he’s got good movement in him so we’re hoping that he can come into the team pretty quickly,” Ferguson said.

“He retains the ball very well from what we’ve seen in training. He’s more of an assist player but he scored five goals last year when he played with the bottom-of-the-league team and he assisted in a few as well, which is good, and that’s what we hope he’ll bring us.

“We’re hoping he’ll chip in and hoping he’ll create and give us a little bit of what we’re looking for at the moment in that final third.”

Cordoba may not be ready to start for Perth in their away trip to Melbourne to face the Heart on Saturday but an appearance off the bench is likely as he looks to build his match fitness.

Ferguson also said he was pleased with the speed at which Cordoba was signed.

“His fitness levels look OK but the only good fitness that you’ll get is when you actually see him in game time,” he said.

“There’s two types of fitness in football; one’s obviously your training and the next one’s your match. Matias arrived in Perth with very good reports but we wanted to see him train in our environment.

“Once we were pleased with Matias’ form, we lodged the necessary paper work in Sydney and within a week, his visa was approved.

“The process was completed quickly and professionally and without any delays which was fantastic.”

The signing will replenish a Glory squad that has already lost the services of Bas van den Brink, Billy Mehmet and Jesse Makarounas in 2013.