ARCHIE DAVIES has left Dundalk to join Carlisle United for an undisclosed fee.
Bohemians and St Pat’s were both keen on the right-back – who had also attracted interest from Motherwell.
But he will instead return to his native England to play his trade for the League Two outfit.
Dundalk boss Jon Daly said: “Archie has been one of the best defenders in the league over the past two seasons and we are obviously very disappointed to see him go, especially when we have only 13 games to go.
“But he felt this opportunity to go back to England might not come up at the end of our season.
“When a player says he wants to go, you have to start planning for life without them.
“The club have got a fee from him and it’s our job now to go and find somebody who can become the next Archie Davies and I’m confident we can do that.”
Davies, 25, spent five years on the books of Brighton before two seasons in League Two with Crawley Town.
He had six months with Aldershot Town in the National League before joining Dundalk in January 2023 with his performances seeing him named in the PFA Ireland Team of the Year.
Davies said: “It was obviously a tough decision.
“It’s something I couldn’t really turn down and I hope people understand that.
“I’ve always said that I wanted to go back and play in the English Football League at some stage and, luckily enough, I’ve built myself a good enough platform at Dundalk for teams to be interested.
“When the opportunity at Carlisle came up, I would have been silly to turn it down.
“Coming over here, I was a bit in the middle of nowhere in terms of my confidence and self-belief.
“To get that back, get a smile on my face, and enjoy playing football again was my number one aim, and I achieved it almost immediately.
“I can only say thanks very much to everyone at Dundalk.
“It has been the most enjoyable spell of my career and I’m going to miss the place.”