Nelson Mandela signs for Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt

Frankfurt have offered a professional contract to a teenager who shares his name with South Africa’s iconic first black civilian President Nelson Mandela.
The footballing Mandela is an 18-year-old striker who hails from Cameroon and has been granted a work permit to play for Frankfurt’s senior team after featuring for their Under-19s last term.
Mandela spent time in Barcelona’s La Masia academy in his younger days before moving on to Germany, taking in a spell with Hoffenheim’s junior sides prior to linking up with Frankfurt.
The youngster impressed at youth level, netting eight goals in 14 matches for Frankfurt’s Under-19 side and he will now have the opportunity to stake a claim in their first team next season.
Frankfurt finished comfortably mid-table in 11th place in last season’s Bundesliga as well as reaching the DFB Pokal final but they found goals hard to come by, scoring just 36 times in 34 league matches.
The club’s teenage striker will be hoping, therefore, that he can help to provide the attacking spark that the club lacked last year.
His namesake is regarded as one of the most important and influential politicians of all time having played a pivotal role in ending Apartheid in South Africa, spending 27-years in prison for the cause.
Mandela, who died in 2013 following a lengthy battle with illness, used sport as a vehicle for unity in South Africa, famously rallying behind the Springboks at the 1995 Rugby World Cup and helping to bring the football World Cup to the nation in 2010.