Stuart Armstrong’s move to Southampton from Celtic has landed Dyce Boys Club a six-figure cash windfall.
Armstrong played for Dyce from the age of 13 for five years and under Fifa regulations, solidarity payments are awarded to the clubs who developed the player in their formative years.
Representatives from the club met Armstrong while he was on international duty with Scotland last week in Edinburgh to celebrate the unexpected financial boost, which help sustain them for the foreseeable future.
The 26-year-old’s family are from Aberdeen and Armstrong trained with Dyce until he spent a season in the youth setup at Caley Thistle. He was let go when they were relegated in 2009 and moved on to Dundee United, before joining Celtic in early 2015. Armstrong joined the Saints for a fee believed to be £7million this summer.
He said “I owe a lot to the coaches and volunteers at Dyce Boys Club. I joined the club when I was 13 years old and spent five happy years there. It was great to meet up with the club committee last week in Edinburgh. They brought some old photographs with them and we reminisced about my time at the club.
“I’m really proud that the move to Southampton has triggered a payment to the club as it was a great place for me to learn and enjoy my football while I was growing up. They will put the money to good use to help ensure that more and more young players in the area can enjoy their football.”
Another product of Dyce Boys Club is Dons captain Graeme Shinnie, who also made regular journeys through from the Granite City to Inverness. He stayed after relegation and became their first captain to lift a major trophy in May 2015.
Former Dyce coach Ronnie Cromar said: “Stuart’s path to the top is an amazing story. We are all so proud of what he has achieved so far in his career and we often talk about him as an example to the young players currently at the club.
“Through the years, we have had the pleasure to coach other internationalists such as Graeme Shinnie and Scott Booth while Bruce Anderson is another former player who has recently broken through into professional football.”