I starred in the Premier League until I had to retire due to injury, then I went on to run a patisserie

DURING his playing days, he was one of Tony Pulis’ go-to signings.

The target man would bully defences in the Championship with Pulis’ Gillingham before joining his boss at Stoke City in 2005.

Three years later, he would help the Potters to promotion to the top flight for the first time since 1985.

In the Premier League, he would form a formidable strike partnership with Ricardo Fuller, which would keep the club in the top flight season after season.

Injury would then force him into retirement in 2014 after stints at Sheffield Wednesday, Tranmere and CSKA Sofia.

And after retirement, Mamady Sidibe’s career path would take quite a surprising turn as he opened a French patisserie.

In 2014, then-Potters boss Mark Hughes cut the ribbon as Sidibe and his wife opened Melice cake shop in Hanley.

The Mali international said at the time: “It has been something that we have talked about for a long time now, because my wife has always enjoyed cooking and baking.

“But normally she has just done it for myself and for our friends – including some of the French players who have been at Stoke.

“It is something totally different to football so we were a little bit worried about doing this initially because people in Stoke don’t really know too much about French patisseries.”

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The business would run for three-and-a-half successful years before shutting down in 2018 as his wife Benita swapped careers.

Benita decided she would still use her baking talents, but to teach kids to make cakes of their own.

The qualified translator said: “With my love for baking and my love of languages, I thought it would be a good idea to offer baking classes in French for kids in school.

“I was talking to my friends about it and they said I should definitely do it.

“My first trial will be at Christ Church First School, in Stone.

“My youngest goes there and on Pancake Day I will go in, make pancakes with them, and do the session in French so the kids can learn some vocabulary and be a bit more comfortable with French.”

“My kids are bilingual. They never learned English from us, they learned English at nursery and at school.

“They speak French with a Parisian accent and English with a Stokie accent and that’s great for them.

“At that age kids are like sponges and it’s very easy for them to learn.”