JETS chief executive Lawrie McKinna is confident football is a universal language that will enable Panamanian recruit Abdiel Arroyo to assimilate quickly and stamp his class on the A-League.
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Arroyo arrived on Thursday after completing his international commitments at the CONCACAF Gold Cup earlier this month.
The 25-year-old attacker, who has represented his country 47 times, including an appearance at the 2018 World Cup, speaks very little English and needed an interpreter to answer questions from the media.
But McKinna was backing Arroyo's on-field performances to speak for themselves.
"I coached in the Chinese Super League for a year, and I couldn't speak a word of Chinese," McKinna said.
"It does make it harder, but we have an interpreter, Julio, who picked him up at the airport and will help him settle in.
"He speaks basic English and I'm sure it won't take him long to pick it up. The other boys will help him out."
After spending almost 24 hours in transit, Arroyo will undergo precautionary phsyical and medical testing on Friday. Depending on clearances, he could receive his first game time in a trial match against Western Sydney Wanderers in Sydney on Wednesday.
The Jets have not enjoyed much luck with South American imports over the years but McKinna and coach Ernie Merrick have identified Arroyo as a player capable of making a successful transition.
"He was playing in the Gold Cup tournament, so that meant we could watch him live, which was an advantage," McKinna said.
"Bringing in overseas players can be hard. You get some right and you get some wrong.
"But when you get a guy who's only 25, and he's played 40-odd games for his national team, it's a reasonable pedigree.
"It's not as if he's 30-odd years old. He's quick, he's young and he's hungry. And that's the type of player we want here at the club."
Meanwhile, McKinna said reports that Socceroos striker Andrew Nabbout had re-signed with Melbourne Victory had taken the Jets by surprise.
Nabbout scored 18 goals in 46 games for the Jets between September, 2016 and March, 2018, before he was released to join Japanese club Urawa Red Diamonds.
The Jets expressed interest in bringing him back to the A-League six months ago. At the time, his agent, Tony Rallis, told the Newcastle Herald: "We have a gentleman's agreement with Lawrie McKinna that if he was to come back to the A-League, Newcastle would have the first right of refusal."
McKinna said he understood Nabbout wanted to return to his home town of Melbourne for family reasons.
"When we last spoke to Andrew, he wanted to stay in Japan," McKinna said.
"Now a deal's been done with Melbourne. His wife's pregnant and they want to come home, so we wish them all the best. That's football."