Ex-Aston Villa flop Ross McCormack – who cost £25m in transfer fees in career – joins non-league Aldershot Town
EX-ASTON Villa flop Ross McCormack – who accumulated £25million in transfer fees through his career – has joined non-league Aldershot Town.
The surprise move by the Scottish striker sees him on a one-year contract and back in England for first time in over three years.
It also marks the latest twist for the nomadic forward who was a deadly striker at Championship level only four years ago.
The 34-year-old said: “It wasn’t a hard decision to make to be honest (on joining the club), but now is the right time to come back and get going again in England.”
McCormack was prolific in the Championship and scored 116 league goals over eight seasons for multiple different clubs.
His career began in Scotland where he joined fairly short spells with Rangers and Motherwell.
It was only when McCormack arrived in England did his sharpshooting skills really take off.
He scored 38 goals in 89 appearances for Cardiff between 2008-10.
In four years at Leeds, he then got 53 goals in 144 games.
The striker moved to Fulham for a then-Championship record fee of £11million and continued his hot form between 2014-2016.
He scored 38 goals at Craven Cottage in 89 appearances.
It all began to go downhill when the frontman joined Aston Villa in a £12million move.
Not only did he struggle to find the net, the Scot also became the centre of manager’s Steve Bruce’s ire.
Bruce publicly criticised the player’s fitness and slammed him for missing a training session because the electronic gates outside of his house would not open.
A frustrated Bruce told the press in 2017: “The latest excuse was that his gates had stuck but he couldn’t jump over a fence that was four feet six inches high.”
After hitting the net only three times in 20 appearances, he went out on loan to Australia.
First he joined Melbourne City and then the Central Coast mariners.
Most read in Football
It was there he had the bizarre experience of playing alongside the fastest man in the world in Usain Bolt, who was attempted to start a football career down under.
He returned to more traditional surroundings in 2019 when he spend part of it on loan at Motherwell.
He later found himself accused of being involved with Jack Grealish’s coronavirus rule-breaking.