The 33-year-old joined City before the 2012 O-League clash against Koloale at Kiwitea St last Saturday but did not receive his international clearance in time so had to be left out of the match day squad.
But he was on hand to take in the game as a spectator and must have been impressed with what he saw from his new team mates as they tore the Solomon Islanders’ defence apart for a 7-3 victory.
City now have the highest-scoring attack in the O-League – the Koloale win took their goal tally to 16, one ahead of fierce rivals Waitakere United – and Tribulietx says the abilities of Ruiz will only add to that threat in the final third.
“He’s an attacking midfielder and is technically very good,” Tribulietx says.
“He’s very good at playing that last ball and, when you look at our style, that is probably one thing we miss sometimes. That last through ball isn’t always there when the games are very tight and hopefully he will bring that to the team.”
After last weekend’s false start, Ruiz is likely to pull on a City shirt for the first time on Sunday, when Auckland welcome mid-table Hawke’s Bay United to Kiwitea St in the ASB Premiership.
He will become the latest in a growing list of Spanish stars to have turned out in City colours and joins fellow countrymen Angel Berlanga, Manel Exposito and Albert Riera in the squad. Another Spaniard, midfielder Andreu Guerao, was also involved for the first half of the season but left to join Georgian top-flight outfit Dinamo Tblisi in the January transfer window.
Indeed, the Auckland squad has somewhat of a United Nations feel as several other nationalities are also represented in the form of Costan Rican Luis Corrales, Argentinian Emiliano Tade, Chilean Mauro Serrano and Englishmen Adam Dickinson and Paul Gothard.
The approach of blending talented imports with homegrown produce appears to have paid off as Auckland currently lead the ASB Premiership by seven points and are the only undefeated team in this season’s O-League.
The latest arrival is likely to bring even more quality to the ranks if his impressive pedigree is anything to go by. Ruiz has played professionally in his homeland and Sweden and has even appeared in the Spanish La Liga, regarded as one of the best leagues in the world, for Espanyol and Albacete.
He knew Tribulietx from his time in Spain and the move down under was born from that connection.
“We’ll see how he goes,” Tribulietx says. “He couldn’t play last weekend because we couldn’t get him cleared, otherwise he would’ve been in. He will be available this week though and we are very happy to have him on board.”