Striker turns down Premiership interest to re-sign with Championship club following career-best season

The 24-year-old, who has previous top-flight experience with Warrenpoint Town, returned to football this season after taking a year out to study for a PGCE in England and also dedicated himself to futsal, the five-a-side game where he has been capped by Northern Ireland.

Only Adam Salley (27) and Matthew Ferguson (26) could boast a better league goal tally than Roohi, who enjoyed a career-best senior season which rightfully earned him top-flight admirers.

His ambition is to test himself at the highest level once again, but for now he couldn’t leave what is an exciting Ballyclare project.

"There was interest from other clubs and some really good clubs,” he said. “It's a testament to Ballyclare for showing me that it's a club that's on the up and a club that has interested me to be involved with for another season.

"If it wasn't that I would have moved on but this is a club that interests me and it's a real family environment.

"I hadn't played football the year before and I played futsal for the whole year, and to be honest I think that really benefited me.

"It enhanced my technical development as a player and when I came back people around the club said I really needed that year to improve myself and the results have shown in terms of my performances and statistics.

"There is always going to be speculation when you score that many goals for a team finishing in the top-half of the Championship.

"I trusted the management with Stevie Small and Chris Ramsey there. Stevie and I have a brilliant relationship and the new chairman, James Kirk, was my manager at PSNI when I was starting into senior football.

"I spoke to him and I trust the direction that the club is going in.”

When the right time comes for Roohi to take a step up in competition, he feels he’s in a much better position to thrive and backs himself to succeed.

"I played (in the Premiership) when I was at Warrenpoint when Matthew Tipton signed me from PSNI,” he added. “I was young and learning but if you compare the player I am now to the one I was back then, they are two completely different players.

"I want to play in the Premiership again and want to try and compete against the best players in this country.

"I always have a saying of 'if you don't trust yourself then nobody else will' so I always back myself no matter if I'm playing in the park with my friends or a really important game.

"I back myself to score goals. I'm the sort of player that could go 89 minutes not touching the ball and having a poor game but if the ball drops in the box I back myself to score.

"It's a huge step up to the Premiership but I always believe you'll get a chance. I'll wait the whole game to get that chance.

"If you're lucky you might get two or three chances but it's then down to me to score. That's where the goals came from and it was a real range with inside the box, outside the box, penalties and headers.

"If I can replicate that again this year it would be amazing for not only me but the club too."