New Zealand's Jack Pelter is a signature away from joining English premier league soccer club Sunderland.
The Press newspaper in Christchurch today reported that Pelter was on the brink of joining the club.
The player's father, Jeff Pelter, said reports of his son signing yesterday had been slightlypremature, but it was merely a case of manager Roy Keane returning to Sunderland from the first team's away fixture in Birmingham yesterday and both parties getting in a room to clinch the deal.
Keane last Friday offered the 20-year-old Canterbury United player a one-year contract with Sunderland, but Pelter's agent first had to get the necessary paperwork from his previous New Zealand clubs to complete the deal.
Pelter will not face any visa problems as he carries both New Zealand and English passports after emigrating from Cumbria with his parents as a nine-year-old.
Since his arrival in Christchurch, Pelter played most of his time for Christchurch Technical, had stints at Ferrymead Bays and Nomads, and most recently shot to prominence with Canterbury United in the New Zealand Football Championships.
After Lee Norfolk, Danny Hay, Ryan Nelsen and Simon Elliott, Pelter will only become the fifth New Zealander in the top flight of English soccer, and the first to make the leap directly from New Zealand's domestic competition.
