{"id":404532,"date":"2026-01-13T12:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/404532\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T12:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:08:16","slug":"kofi-balmer-bristol-rovers-sign-motherwell-defender-on-loan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/404532\/","title":{"rendered":"Kofi Balmer: Bristol Rovers sign Motherwell defender on loan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bristol Rovers have signed centre-back Kofi Balmer on loan from Scottish Premiership side Motherwell.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 25-year-old, who has agreed a deal until the end of the season, has previously played played for Port Vale and AFC Wimbledon on the English Football League while on loan from Crystal Palace. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The former Northern Ireland Under-21 international left the English top-flight side to move north of the border in the summer of 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He has played 31 times for Motherwell, but has not featured in the first-team since 27 September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He is the first new loanee to join the Gas after boss Steve Evans sent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/c5y5egqkxz7o\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">all five of their previous loan players back to their parent clubs<\/a> last week. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;There was a lot of interest in Kofi&#8217;s signature across England and Scotland, and my thanks goes to Ricky [Martin] and the recruitment team for their efforts in assisting me in getting him here,&#8221; Evans told the club website.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Kofi is a versatile defender who is calm, composed and comfortable in possession. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He has good experience in the EFL and in the Scottish Premiership, and I&#8217;m looking forward to working with him. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He spoke of having lots to prove and I love kids who have that desire when they come here.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol Rovers have signed centre-back Kofi Balmer on loan from Scottish Premiership side Motherwell. The 25-year-old, who has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-404532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}