Hamilton Accies sign former German youth talent

Christopher Mandiangu was a German under-18 international. Picture: Getty

The Lanarkshire club have brought 23-year-old front man Christopher Mandiangu to New Douglas Park from the Dutch side FC Eindhoven.

Mandiangu was brought up in Germany after leaving his birthplace, DR Congo, as a child and was a product of Borussia Moenchengladbach’s academy system.

He also played for Germany’s youth teams up to under-18 level, making 22 appearances and netting six goals, before his career took a slight dip.

The left-sided attacker has bounced around several lower division German clubs since leaving Borussia in 2012, such as Duisburg, Neustrelitz and last year at Dynamo Berlin’s second team. However, he was offered a chance to kick-start his career in Dutch football in August by former Motherwell defender Mitchell van der Gaag, who took over FC Eindhoven last summer.

Mandiangu made 12 appearances for Van der Gaag’s side in the Dutch second tier, netting twice, and the FC Eindhoven website revealed yesterday that the player is now moving to Scotland.

“Christopher will immediately leave our club to play as a contract player for the Scottish club Hamilton Academical, the current number five in the Scottish Premiership,” it said.

“Christopher came on an amateur basis for FC Eindhoven and played in 12 of the 15 matches. Three times he was in the starting line-up, nine times as a substitute and scored two goals. We thank Christopher for his commitment to FC Eindhoven and wish him every success in his new Scottish club.”

Mandiangu will find another German speaker in the Accies dressing room in Gramoz Kurtaj, who grew up in the north near Kiel after moving from Kosovo as a child.

Accies will hope that their latest import from Dutch football does as well as the last one. Nigel Hasselbaink was picked as up as a free agent in 2010 and had two successful spells at New Douglas Park.