St Neots Town manager Matt Clements is thrilled to have won the race to sign sought-after talent Claudio Ofosu.

The 19 year-old agreed a deal with the Southern League Premier Division Central outfit after attending their first two pre-season training sessions.

Ofosu returns to the Premier Plus Stadium after spending the past two seasons at Stevenage. He was previously part of Saints’ football and education programme, and featured at first-team level during the 2015/16 campaign before earning a move to the League Two club following a successful trial.

Clements said: “Claudio had a lot of offers - as you would expect for a talented young player who has been released by a professional club - and we’re delighted he has chosen to continue his career at St Neots.

“He knows the club from his time here in the past and has also heard good things about what we’re trying to build here.

“He’s happy to be a part of that and we’re obviously delighted to bring another good player into our squad. I feel sure he will excite the fans.

“Claudio is very much like Dylan (Williams) and Dion (Sembie-Ferris) in that he has aspirations to progress in the game and we’ll do all we can to help him achieve that.”

Ofosu and two fellow new recruits - defender Jack Keeble and midfielder James Peters - will feature in Saints’ squad for their first pre-season friendly at home to League Two side Cambrige United this Saturday. That match will kick off noon if England are still involved in the World Cup, or 3pm if not.

Clements plans to involve somewhere in the region of 20 players in the game and will run the rule over a handful of possible recruits.

Among them will be Matt Miles, a former Leicester City youngster who spent much of last season at Eynesbury Rovers. He actually played against Saints in the Hunts Senior Cup final.

Defender Steven Shaw and midfielder Prince Mutswungama, who have both released by the Cambridge United youth system, may also be involved.

Clements is still keen to add a couple more outfield players to his squad and will also complete a deal for one of the two goalkeepers - Harry Reynolds and Dan Swan - who are battling it out in pre-season to become the club’s number one.The friendly against Cambridge starts a run of our successive games against Football League sides. The next one follows on Monday when they entertain MK Dons at the Premier Plus Stadium (7.45pm).

Saints then host Peterborough United on July 14 and Stevenage on July 17.

Clements has no plans to sign striker James Hall who has trained with the club in the past week. The frontman spent part of the 2016/17 campaign with Saints.