A WEEK SINCE he helped the club win its first major trophy in five years, Graham Carey has extended his contract with CSKA Sofia.
Carey was a member of the side who recorded a 1-0 win over Arda in the 2021 Bulgarian Cup final, as they made amends for a penalty-shootout defeat to Lokomotiv Plovdiv in last year’s decider.
A creative, left-footed midfielder, the 32-year-old joined CSKA Sofia from Plymouth Argyle on a two-year deal in June 2019.
Despite being linked with several clubs back in the UK, including Bolton Wanderers and Dundee United, Carey has extended his stay in the Bulgarian capital.
The Dubliner began his professional career at Celtic. He went on to play for Bohemians, Huddersfield Town, St Mirren and Ross County before embarking on a four-year spell at Plymouth, where he experienced promotion from League Two.
In 66 appearances in all competitions for CSKA Sofia, Carey has scored six goals and chipped in with 18 assists.
After the Bulgarian outfit caused an upset by beating Swiss giants Basel in the qualifying round, the former Republic of Ireland U21 international played three times in the group stages of the Europa League last year.
Funny how nobody is calling for him to get an international cap when he has just won a league title and has played in the Europa League but will get their knickers in a twist when a 17 year old kid who hasn’t played a minute of senior football doesn’t capped straight away
@Phil Redmond: Which particular 17 ye old are you referring to?
@Bert Carolan: None in particular. Speaking generally about the attitude of people wanting young lads from the likes of U21 to be called up to senior team before they’ve even played for the their clubs first team (there’s been plenty of articles about young Irish players recently) but here we have a guy who’s just won a league that is arguably a better standard than the championship and certainly better than the level of some of the players we are dragging out of the arse end of the championship and league 1, has played European football as recently as last season and there’s not a peep about him getting an international cap
@Phil Redmond: and no doubt better standard than LOI
@Phil Redmond: I think that playing European football is the big plus here. We have so few players that have that experience.