Dunfermline have sealed a deal to make Alfons Amade their third summer signing.
Following on from the capture of Charlie Gilmour and Zeke Cameron, the 25-year-old has penned a two-year deal.
He is expected to get his first public run-out for the Pars in Saturday’s pre-season friendly against Kelty Hearts.
Courier Sport has taken a look at Amade’s career path that has led him to East End Park.
Early years in Germany
Born in Heidelberg, a city with a large student population in the south-west of Germany, Amade was quickly spotted by one of the region’s leading clubs, SV Waldhof Mannheim.
He then showed enough promise to be recruited by Bundesliga outfit TSG Hoffenheim at the age of ten.
Signing his first professional contract in 2018, Amade featured regularly as a youth and for the reserve team at Hoffenheim.
He was part of the U/19s side that reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Youth League in 2018/19, playing against the likes of Shakhtar Donetsk, Manchester City, Lyon and Dynamo Kiev. However, a back problem kept him out of the quarter-final victory over Real Madrid and the semi-final loss to Porto.
Despite showing early promise, he struggled to make the breakthrough at first-team level and was subsequently loaned out to Eintracht Braunschweig in the German third-tier and played five times.
On his return, Amade made his Hoffenheim debut as a late substitute in a 3-2 loss away to Eintracht Frankfurt in March 2019.
He made a further appearance for ‘The Kraichgauers’ in December 2020 in a 4-1 victory over Gent in the Europa League.
Move to Belgium and beyond
It became clear he would need a move to kick-start his career, however, and in the summer of 2021, still aged just 21, Amade signed for Oostende in Belgium.
He would spend the next three seasons with the West Flanders outfit, where at one point he was a team-mate of erstwhile Dunfermline attacker Dapo Mebude
There, he managed to rack up 61 appearances over the course of his three years at the club but departed last summer and joined Septemvri Sofia in Bulgaria.
With Pars owner James Bord also owing a stake at Septemvri, Amade clearly caught the eye with his 22 outings and two goals for the top-flight club.
International honours
Amade played for the country of his birth through the youth ages with Germany.
Gaining caps all the way from U/15, he made ten appearances for the U/20s and previously reached the semi-finals of the UEFA U/17 Euros when Germany lost to Spain in 2016.
However, he made the switch to declare for Mozambique when he made his debut in January last year.
The 25-year-old has since racked up 13 caps and two goals for ‘Os Mambas’ and was most recently in action in World Cup qualifiers against Uganda and Algeria in March.
He also played all three group games for Mozambique at the delayed 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in January last year, taking on Mo Salah’s Egypt, Cape Verde and Ghana at the finals in the Ivory Coast.
Versatility
Neil Lennon has spoken of Amade playing for Dunfermline in midfield, but he certainly provides options.
He has oscillated between turning out as a defensive midfielder and as a right-back through his youth and first-team career.
Last season, with Septenvri, Abade played mostly as a sitting midfielder but occasionally played slightly further forward.
He has also played in the middle of the pitch for Mozambique but many of his youth caps for Germany came as a right-back.
It was that versatility that helped earn him a move to Oostende four years ago.
“He is an energetic player who will go perfectly with our style of play,” said executive president Gauthier Ganaye when he signed there. “He convinced us of his qualities but also of his mentality. His versatility will be a plus.”
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