Rovers have snapped up Canadian shot-stopper Jayson Leutwiler on an initial 2 year deal, which can be extended to three if the club wishes to do so. The Swiss-born keeper is relatively well known to manager Tony Mowbray, having been the understudy to former Rover Jason Steele, whilst the trio were at Middlesbrough. The 6ft 5in goalkeeper gained a strong reputation throughout his years in the Football League with Shrewsbury Town as he moved on from the Riverside in search of first team football.
After getting his first crack at being the number one, Leutwiler impressed with some outstanding displays between the sticks as the Shrews won an immediate promotion back to League 1 in his first season. As a result of his fine form throughout the 2014-15 seasons, Jayson broke Shrewsbury’s club record for most clean sheets in a league season, after keeping 23 clean sheets by the time the season came to a close, which made Leutwiler one of the most efficient goalkeepers throughout Europe in 2014-15. Alongside an impressive debut season for the Shrews, Leutwiler was able to silence potential critics by helping Shrewsbury Town maintain their League 1 status last season, which proved that he was a capable League 1 shot stopper.
In similar fashion to the signings before him, Jayson praised the size of the club as well as the personnel within it, particularly Tony Mowbray, who he claimed was a big attraction in making his decision to switch Shropshire for Lancashire. “It’s a huge club, with a lot of targets in front of us – promotion definitely – and that’s the main attraction. The infrastructure and everything here is great, and it’s the right step for me at this moment of my career. He’s a great manager. I worked with him for almost two years at Middlesbrough and it was a great experience there. I was a bit younger at the time, but I learned a lot about English football, it was the perfect club to come to and I had a great time. “He brought me over from Switzerland to England and it’s another occasion now to be with him here for a couple of years and I’m really happy.”
The Rovers fans will be hoping that Leutwiler will be able to replicate his form over the past 3 seasons in a friendly, but competitive battle with Spanish teammate David Raya for the number one spot between the sticks throughout the season.
