India, April 22 -- After surviving a fatal bar fire in Switzerland on New Year's Day, French soccer player Tahirys Dos Santos has signed his first professional contract with Metz.

The Ligue 1 club announced the one-year contract signing late Monday, nine days after the 19-year-old defender returned to play for its reserves team.

Dos Santos was severely burned in the fire at a bar in ski resort Crans-Montana in the early hours of Jan. 1 that killed 41 people and injured more than 100.

"This moment has an even more special meaning after the difficult months I went through in the hospital," Dos Santos said in a club statement. "This test made me stronger and taught me to never give up."

The French teenager, who has family ties to Cape Ve...