Signing for Aberdeen has delighted defender Kristers Tobers’ father – whose footballing hero is Gothenburg Great Sir Alex Ferguson.
Latvia international Tobers was secured in a £600,000 transfer from Swiss club Grasshoppers until summer 2028.
The Latvia captain is in contention to make his debut against Hearts at Pittodrie on Sunday.
Centre-back Tobers says his move to Pittodrie holds extra significance for his dad, Richard, due to the connection with Manchester United and Dons legend Sir Alex.
Tobers has promised to get his photo alongside the statue of Sir Alex outside Pittodrie’s Richard Donald Stand to send to his father, so he can make it his Facebook profile image.
Tobers said: “I was interested in playing in Britain because my dad has always been a big Manchester United fan.
“I always watched British football with my dad.
“I was passionate about that football, all the fans and the environment.
“My dad didn’t know about it (Sir Alex statue) until I told him about it.
“Then he actually googled it yesterday.
“I would be happy to take a photo there and send it to my dad.
“I think there’s going to be a Facebook photo for him now and the profile picture as well.”
Relief at quickly securing work permit
Aberdeen pushed through the deal to sign the 37-times capped Latvia international earlier this week.
However, there was still a race against time to secure a work permit in time for him to face Hearts at the weekend.
But the permit was successfully secured with a few days to spare.
He said: “It is all sorted now so I’m happy, no stress anymore.
“I was sent all the papers, I filled them out and I went to get my visa.
“I got the work permit.
“They were surprisingly fast – it was the first time it happened so fast.”
Tobers told Grasshoppers he wanted to move to Pittodrie
The 24-year-old is Aberdeen’s second signing of what looks set to be a busy January transfer window for boss Jimmy Thelin.
Winger Jeppe Okkels was secured on loan until the end of the season from Preston North End in the first signing move.
Tobers revealed, when he heard of Aberdeen’s interest, he informed Grasshoppers’ board he wanted to move to Scotland.
He said: “In the beginning, my agent left me out of the conversations.
“He didn’t even speak with me because I was on vacation at that point.
“I was a little bit out of this, just relaxing and not focusing on football.
“Then when it started to get a little bit more serious, I came back to Grasshoppers.
“It was my intention to go when I knew that Aberdeen was interested.
“I had a good conversation with the sporting director from Grasshoppers.
“I said that I want to try and I want to go to Scotland.
“It was not an easy situation for the whole club (Grasshoppers). The last two seasons, it was not easy for us, we were lower in the table.
“There were previous owners from Wolverhampton, then we were trying to put a lot of money into it and then sign new players, but the chemistry was kind of not there. We were missing a little bit of these scoring goals.
“There has been lot of changes of coaches and a change of ownership as well now – they are owners of Los Angeles FC.
“But I’m happy that they let me go and I will try my best here now.”
Seeking advise on Scottish football
Tobers turned to some former team-mates to get the lowdown on Scotland and Scottish football.
They told him it would rain a lot.
When he arrived in the Granite City it was covered in snow, much like Switzerland and his home nation, Latvia.
He said: “I knew a little bit about Scottish football from my ex-teammates who were in Poland.
“They were more telling me about the weather than about football.
“They told me it would rain a lot, but there is a lot of snow, so I am used to that.”
Will Tobers start against Hearts?
Tobers and Angus MacDonald are the only two available centre-backs for the clash with Hearts.
Gavin Molloy and Jack Milne are both out long-term with injury and Slobodan Rubezic is suspended after his red card in the 2-0 loss at Motherwell.
Is Tobers ready to start against Hearts?
He said: “We will discuss it with the coach.
“The last couple of days we had to work on the work permit and sort out all the stuff.
“However, I’ve trained with the team already.”
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