GREGORY ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson was yesterday announced as Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Elite League club Fruta Conquerors’ latest signing, as the Tucville-based club continues to beef-up its squad for the second half of the season.

Conquerors finished behind champions Guyana Defence Force (GDF) last season, and had vowed to make the necessary changes needed to not only compete with the ‘Army’, but to stake their claim as the best club in Guyana.

Richardson, touted as one of the most talented players of his generation, had taken the Elite League by storm in its inaugural season while playing for his foundation club, Pele FC.

Bailout However, after Pele, along with Alpha United, Slingerz FC and the Georgetown Football Club (GFC), had pulled out of the Elite League in protest of the GFF’s expansion from eight to ten teams, calling the move “unconstitutional”, the club (Pele) found itself back at the ‘association’ level, playing under the Georgetown Football Association (GFA).

Fruta Conquerors, headed by Guyanese-born Canadian football star Alex Bunbury, had made several notable signings this season, also adding National player Anthony Benfield, and Golden Jaguars National keeper Akel Clarke to their line-up.

Richardson, 35, is the first Guyanese-born player to be signed and featured in the USA’s Major League Soccer (MLS), following his move to the Colorado Rapids in 2009.

The forward, who sits behind Nigel ‘Powers’ Codrington (18) as the country’s second highest goalscorer on the international stage, (15) is well known for his ability to get goals and at Fruta Conquerors it will be expected of him to live up to his billing, even though he’s one step off the player he used to be.