Former Stoke City player Mamady Sidibe has opened the doors to his French patisserie in Hanley, with an eye on launching more if it proves a success.
Sidibe and his wife Benita officially cut the ribbon on their new project after a grand opening with Stoke boss Mark Hughes and a number of players took place.
The Parisian player, who netted 26 times for the club during an eight-year spell, took on his long-held ambition after leaving CSKA Sofia seven months ago.
"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," Sidibe said.
"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."
The bakery is based in the lower mall of Intu's Potteries Shopping Centre.
Sidibe added: "Hopefully, this project takes off for us and we can look at building one or two more around the area in the future. That would be fantastic. For now though, we just hope that everybody enjoys what we have on offer."