East Fife hope to hand highly-rated former Real Sociedad centre-half Julen Etxabeguren Leanizbarrutia a baptism of fire against Elgin City early next month.
The 23-year-old has signed for the Methil club as an amateur and is poised to sign a contract on professional terms next month, with the January 3 game up at Borough Briggs pinpointed as a potential debut date for the Madrid-born player.
Etxabeguren Leanizbarrutia never played for Real Sociedad’s first team but spent four years playing for the B side, and was included in the Spanish club’s 25-man squad for the Champions League last season.
He was recommended to the Fifers by agent Allan Preston and has been training at Bayview for the last month or so.
“He decided rather than to pursue football full-time in Spain he’d go and get his degree, so he was looking for a part-time club over here,” Naysmith explained.
“As soon as he trained you could see he was a typical Spanish player he never broke sweat in the bounce game he played and we’re looking forward to having him available.
“We managed to get an outside sponsor to put money in to pay his wages and I can’t tell you what he’s on but it’s embarrassing how much he’s signed for he just wants to play.
“So we’ve done all the donkey work now because the five or six weeks he’s been signed as an amateur he’ll be getting paid nothing so that’s a great commitment from the lad himself.”
Meanwhile, Naysmith has been delighted to see Alan Cook return to the fold early following surgery.
The 22-year-old, who had been out since September, came on as a surprise substitute in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Montrose and is set to travel to Annan with the squad tomorrow.
“It’s great that he got 10 minutes and he’s still miles away from full fitness but we’ll build him up in training over the next couple of weeks,” he said.
“He’ll probably be on the bench against Annan and there’s a bounce game the next again week to try and give him 50-60 minutes, but he’ll be a welcome boost because we thought he would be out for five or six weeks.
“It was only three weeks since his operation so he’ll be a welcome addition back to the squad.”