Patrick Hoban has brought an end to his second spell at Dundalk after agreeing a two-year deal with Derry City.
The 32-year-old departs as the Lilywhites' record goalscorer, having scored 150 times in 296 games. Hoban won three SSE Airtricity Premier Division titles at Oriel Park and two FAI Cups.
The Galway man leaves on good terms, with Dundalk confirming his exit on Wednesday, a statement on their club website reading: "Players come and players go but memories, as they say, live forever. Hoban provided us with countless good ones over the years."
He first arrived at the club from Mervue United in December 2012, scoring 15 goals in his debut season.
In 2014 he became the first player in Dndalk's history to score 20 goals in a Premier Division campaign as Stephen Kenny's team ended a 19-year wait to be crowned league champions.
A three-year spell in England - with Oxford United and Mansfield Town - followed, before Hoban returned to Dundalk for the 2018 season. He went on to score 29 league goals as Kenny’s men secured another league and FAI Cup double.
A four-trophy haul followed in 2019 as Dundalk, with Hoban as club captain, retained the league title and added the League Cup, the Unite The Union Cup and the FAI President’s Cup to the trophy cabinet.
— Patrick Hoban (@PaHoban10) January 10, 2024
In the Covid-shortened 2020 campaign, Hoban helped Dundalk reach the group stages of the UEFA Europa League.
His final goal for the club came in a 5-1 win over UCD at Belfield last November.
Welcoming the centre-forward's arrival, Derry City manager Ruaidhri Higgins said he jumped at the opportunity to bring Hoban on board.
"I'm absolutely delighted to be honest. I know Pat a long time, played with him, coached him and now I'm going to be his manager," he said.
"There was a bit of work involved (to get the deal done) but absolutely delighted that he's going to be the number nine for Derry City now.
"He's proven. You'd have to say (he's) consistently been the top striker in the country for a long time and his numbers speak for themselves and probably the most impressive thing about his numbers is that half of his goals were the first goal for his club in a game, so either put the team in front, equalised or got his team back into it.
"He gets big, big goals and he's a big game player so delighted to bring him here and look forward to working with him."
Hoban added that his mind was made up to leave Dundalk for the Candystripes as soon as he spoke to Higgins.
"Between the two clubs, it was obviously something that was going on for a while, but I got speaking to the gaffer yesterday, I was buzzing just to be here. I was excited, I couldn't even sleep."
