Barry Cotter scored an own goal against CSKA Sofia. Then they signed him. Football is a strange game.
The 27-year-old completed a move to the Bulgarian side for an undisclosed fee after catching their eye across Derry's Europa League double header — a tie the Irish side lost 5-3 on aggregate. Cotter played every minute of both legs, and whatever impression the own goal left, it clearly wasn't the lasting one.
A ninth club, a first step outside these islands
Cotter has bounced around the Irish and English football pyramid for his entire career — Limerick FC, Shamrock Rovers, St. Patrick's Athletic, various stops across the English Football League — but this is the first time he'll be working in a league outside of Ireland or England. CSKA Sofia will be his ninth club. At 27, a move into European football isn't nothing.
He only joined Derry in February on a free from Barnsley, made 30 appearances, scored twice — own goal excluded or included depending on how you're counting — and has now left for a fee the club hasn't disclosed. A tidy few months of business if the price was right.
Interim manager Mark Connolly kept it brief and professional: "This is a fantastic opportunity for him, and the club didn't want to stand in his way." That's the right call. You don't block a player from a move like this over one season of squad depth.
What Derry lose, and what Sofia are buying
Losing a player who started every minute of your European campaign mid-season is a real disruption, not a reshuffle. Derry are now down a dependable, if unspectacular, option — the kind of player whose absence shows in the squad sheet more than the highlights reel. Their defensive solidity odds in the latter half of the League of Ireland season deserve a second look.
For CSKA's part, they sit third in the Bulgarian Super League after seven matches and play the Bulgarian Super Cup final tomorrow. They've bought a player who knows how to handle European pressure — he's just been through it against them. That's a specific kind of scouting.
