Mendy makes Champions League history

As Chelsea expertly and tactically dispatched Manchester City 1-0 at the Estadio do Dragao, Porto in the 2021 Uefa Champions league final on Saturday night, goalkeeper Edouard Mendy silently made history by becoming the first African goalkeeper to win the most prestigious club competition in the Champions League era.

Apart from the ultimate feat of winning the trophy, the former Rennes goalkeeper also became the first African goalkeeper to play in the competitions finals since 1985 where Zimbabwean international Bruce Grobbelaar featured and won the European Cup final with Liverpool in 1984.

With this being Mendy’s debut season with Chelsea in the Champions League, the former Rennes player also broke another record. He became the first goalkeeper who has managed to keep as many as nine clean sheets in their debut Champions League season.

Mendy’s football career has been anything but conventional. As a youngster who struggled to find full time employment and only played in the French amateur leagues before being thrown a lifeline in 2015 just before he came close to giving up on football altogether, this achievement is no mean feat to the Senegalese shot stopper who has punched way over and above the expectations.

In an interview on The Analyst, the goalkeeper, who has had to overcome a ton of difficulties to get to where he is right now, reiterated his wish to only keep working so as to open the doors for other African goalkeepers who severely lack representation especially in England.

“There are a few African goalkeepers, that is why as an African goalkeeper in the Premier League, I have to give my best, to, if it is a stereotype, sweep them away to open the way for others,” he said.

Upon debuting for Chelsea, Mendy became just the fourth African international goalkeeper to play in the Premier League and the first in 10 years.

Important to note is that the Chelsea goalkeeper made his first ever appearance in the competiton in Chelsea’s meeting with Sevilla in October at the age of 28years, 233 days.

From trials and tribulations to triumph and making history!