Interestingly, Mendy will return home to France in November 24 in a rematch attempt at his former side Rennes in the Champions League group stages. Since wearing the Blue shirt, the Senegal international has turned fortunes for Frank Lampard’s back line becoming Chelsea’s number one keeper already. There is another legendary candidate that did exactly the same in 2004, Petr Cech who is said to have recommended the 6’5 keeper to supercede the Spaniard Kepa Arrizabalaga. Mendy became the second goalkeeper to join Chelsea from Rennes just last month. Mendy was honured to have former Chelsea goalkeeper scout just to see the Senegal goalkeeper, and eventually Cech made the phone call to sign him up. That made him call technical director and performance advisor Petr Cech to watch a few matches. His excellent season at the Roazhan Park grabbed the attention of Chelsea’s goalkeeper scout Christophe Lollicho, who was impressed by the shot-stopper. conceding just 31, which eventually helped the club achieve its best finish at third in the table, which earned them Champions League entry for the very first time. The Senegal international went on to keep 13 clean sheets in 33 total matches. This was where his career took root.Īfter his impressive performances at Ligue 2, Rennes grabbed Mendy for £3.5 million in 2015. Despite playing for the B side, the keeper understood the dynamics of football even better.ĭuring the 2015-16 campaign, Mendy secured a move to Reims in the second tier where he eventually helped the club achieve the Ligue 2 title in 2017-18, making 34 appearances and conceding only 24 goals. That kick-started his focus on wearing the keeper’s gloves again. He even managed to train without any pay at former club Le Havre, but then came a phone call from club Marseille in 2015 that provided hope for him to return to the field where he belonged. Mendy has said plenty of times that it was his family who supported him and instilled the idea of football in him during his wilderness year without a club.
Edouard mendy brother professional#
The former Cherbourg goalkeeper began to train by the help of his brother, and it was his family that never abandoned his quest to become a professional footballer. Edouard’s interest was in business since he’d studied business in secondary school, but the hunger for football never really went away.
One of his friends even asked him to manage a clothing shop at Le Havre. This was the deal-breaker moment for Mendy who queued up at a local job centre to get through this survival phase of his life. His agent promised him fortunes with a club ready to sign him in England, but months passed without the agent answering his calls, leaving him with no hopes to achieve his dream. The Senegal international began to hunt for jobs outside the world of football. He regards this time as one of his darkest in his life as he began to realize that unemployment benefits would not be good enough to provide for his family. He managed to stay with Cherbourg for three years till the summer of 2014 where he made a total of 26 appearances, but then came his big drought in football: Just 22, Mendy was without a football club for a whole year, and his girlfriend was expecting their first child. Then it was his move to AS Cherbourg that enabled him to watch the semi-professional league of French third-tier system of the Championnat National. At age 13 Edouard joined the youth academy of Le Havre AC to understand the basic principles of being a goalkeeper. Mendy was born in Montivilliers, Seine-Maritime in France, his mother descended from Senegal and his father being Bissau-Guinean. And there’s more to the story of Mendy than just being a top-class goalkeeper he is also a an excellent person. Just five years ago, Edouard Mendy was without a job, without a club, without football and, to find ways to provide for his family, exactly one a brick away from calling quits on his dream.įast forward to present times: The Senegal goalkeeper signed for Chelsea last month in a £22 million deal from Rennes, and he has turned fortunes at Stamford Bridge in just nine games. There are very few players who literally start from nothing and reach the highest level that football can offer.
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