Former Keith captain Stuart Walker passed up a lucrative testimonial season with the Maroons because he wanted to win trophies with new club Cove Rangers.
The 28-year-old, who had been with the Maroons for the last 11 seasons, would have been awarded a testimonial next season, but on Friday he and team-mate, centre forward Jonny Smith, signed two and a half year contracts with the Highland League champions.
Walker, a contracts-engineer with an Aberdeen-based oil company, said: “The way things have worked our in recent years Dean Donaldson, Kris Niddrie and then Graham Lonie were all granted testimonials, if I had stayed around I would have got mine next season.
“But money isn’t the main motivation for me.
“Yes, it would have been good to earn some cash for a testimonial season. But at this stage of my career I am more interested in trying to win league titles.
“Cove are always there or thereabouts in the chase for the title, so hopefully I can help them retain it again this term. At the age of 28 this could well be my last move.
“My playing career won’t last forever so I want to win as many trophies as I can before I eventually hang up my boots.
“I live and work in Aberdeen, but I had the opportunity to sign for Deveronvale before joining Cove.
“Vale would have been a great club to play for, but I feel I have done enough travelling on a Saturday afternoon over the course of the last 11 years.”
Former Aberdeen forward Smith, is equally pleased to be taking a peg at Allan Park. The 25-year-old from Liverpool said: “Cove were always a team I hated playing against as they were always so well organised and I think the tightness of the Allan Park pitch will suit my style of play.
“Cove definitely have a chance of retaining the title they won last season. I was really surprised that they had such a poor start to the season, but they’ve shown recently they are now on a good run of form.
“Having trained with them last Saturday after our league match had been postponed, I believe the standard of players in the squad is fantastic, a really good blend of youth and experience.”
Rangers manager, Kevin Tindal added: “These are two major signings, they’re players we’ve been interested in for quite some time, so to get them in just before the turn of the year was tremendous.
“We are on a good run just now but nobody is resting on their laurels. The players know they have to maintain their form, but we have now brought in two very experienced players to add depth to the squad. It sets us up nicely for going into the Christmas period.”