6th December 2006. 3.00pm

This week Maidstone United completed the signing of 23 year old French utility player Stéphane Mamadou from US Lusitanos de St Maur. http://us-lusitanos.ifrance.com/ Mamadou is a tall, athletic central holding midfielder or central defensive player has recently moved to England to begin work as a language assistant at a London school.

The transfer took almost a month to complete due to the delay in acquiring an International Clearance Certificate from the FFF (French FA) despite the hard work of the FA Registrations Department. Meanwhile, Mamadou has been able to train with The Stones but has been a frustrated onlooker on matchdays.

US Lusitanos, based near to Marne La Vallee (close to Disneyland Paris) play in the Division d'Honneur, which is the top level of French non league football. Non league football in France is regional and roughly equates to Conference Regional level. In France there is Ligue 1, Ligue 2 and Ligue National and then the regional leagues of which Division d'Honneur is one.

Stephane will be eligible to play against Croydon Athletic this weekend.

Just to clear up any confusion, the club has confirmed that our Boxing Day fixture at Sittingbourne kicks-off at 3pm.

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