Armand Mahan (born September 7, 1983) is an Ivorian professional

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player. He is usually positioned as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

left winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Career

Mahan played during his youth for

ASEC Mimosas The Association Sportive des Employés de Commerce Mimosas, literally Mimosas Commerce Employees' Sporting Association, is an Côte d'Ivoire, Ivorian Association football, football club based in Abidjan. The club is also known as ''ASEC Mimosas A ...

. He moved to Belgium in 2003, when he signed a contract with

SK Beveren Sportkring Beveren is a professional Belgian association football club located in the municipality of Beveren, East Flanders. They play in the Belgian First Division B. History The club was founded in 1936 as Red Star and registered to an amate ...

who worked together with the Ivorian team via the

Frenchman The French people (french: Français) are an ethnic group and nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture, history, and language, identified with the country of France. The French people, especially the nati ...

Jean-Marc Guillou Jean-Marc Guillou (born 20 December 1945) is a French football coach and former player, who played at the 1978 World Cup. Club career Guillou was born in Bouaye, Loire-Atlantique. He played for Angers SCO, OGC Nice, Neuchâtel Xamax, FC Mulhou ...

. Several other more famous players made this same move, such as

Emmanuel Eboué Emmanuel Eboué (born 4 June 1983) is an Ivorian former professional footballer who played as a right back. Formed at ASEC Mimosas, he moved to Europe to play for Belgium's Beveren in 2002. He spent most of his career, from 2005 to 2011, with Ar ...

Arthur Boka Etienne Arthur Boka (born 2 April 1983) is an Ivorian former professional footballer who played as a left back for the Ivory Coast national team. At club level, he plays for Atlético de Marbella in the seventh-tier Primera Andaluza. He was ...

Romaric Saint Romaric (died 653) was a Frankish nobleman who lived in Austrasia from the late 6th century until the middle of the 7th century. He and Amatus of Grenoble founded Remiremont Abbey. Biography He was a former Count Palatine in the court of t ...

and

Yaya Touré Gnégnéri Yaya Touré (born 13 May 1983) is an Ivorian professional football coach and former player who played as a midfielder. He is an academy coach for Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur. Touré aspired to be a striker during his yout ...

. In the Jupiler League 2006-07 season, SK Beveren ended 18th and last in the league. As a result, they were relegated to the

Belgian Second Division The Belgian Second Division (known as the Proximus League for sponsorship reasons) was the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Associa ...

. Mahan, being end of contract at Beveren, was offered a contract by

Cercle Brugge Cercle Brugge Koninklijke Sportvereniging () is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges. Cercle have played in the Belgian Pro League since the 2003–04 season, having previously spent several years in the Belgian Second Divisio ...

about two weeks after the end of the season, a contract which he accepted. This way, despite relegation, Mahan still played at the highest level of

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

football. However, at the end of the 2007-08 season, he was given a free transfer.

References

Armand Mahan player info at Sportwereld.be

Armand Mahan player info at the official Cercle Brugge site

Notes

Ivorian footballers Ivory Coast under-20 international footballers Ivory Coast international footballers Association football fullbacks Association football wingers K.S.K. Beveren players Cercle Brugge K.S.V. players 1983 births Living people Ivorian expatriates in Belgium Footballers from Abidjan Belgian Pro League players Expatriate footballers in Belgium {{Côted'Ivoire-footy-bio-stub