Edouard Mendy’s journey in life really is the classic fairy tale story.
Just 6 years ago, at the age of 22, Mendy and his partner were living in France and expecting their first baby.
He found himself without a club, and without a job. With things on a downward spiral, Mendy started looking for a job and was on employment support.
Now, at the age of 28, Mendy has just been handed his dream move and is currently the number one goalkeeper at Chelsea.
You could see the pure joy on his face yesterday taking part in his first Chelsea press conference. You can just tell that even he is still struggling to believe where he is now, and how far he has come in just 6 years.
He has already become a firm fan favourite at Chelsea, and Frank Lampard has already named him as his number one.
From being on income support, to becoming Chelsea’s number one – what a story.
Mendy has been telling it to the Chelsea website, he said:
“If someone had said to me then [6 years ago] I would end up at Chelsea, I would not have bothered to look at or listen to them.
“It was really very difficult because on one hand you have the anger of finding yourself without a club because of the agent I was with, but also the disappointment of not being able to play at the weekend, not being able to do what I love.
“That is really hard, a year is a very long time for a footballer. Fortunately I could always count on my family and they helped me through that and to bounce back and get to where I am today.
“When I got the message from my agent at the time, I immediately went back to the club where I trained when I was young, and I was training with the reserves there every morning. In the afternoon I’d go to the gym or with my brother to the pitch to practise shot-stopping.
“I had unemployment support at the time so I could dedicate myself totally to football, but it was incredibly difficult and my partner was expecting our first baby so the unemployment support wasn’t going to be enough for us.
“We needed something else so I started looking for other work, but then I had the opportunity to go to Marseille and I was given a trial and it was a case of giving absolutely everything to have the opportunity to join that club. Fortunately it worked, and when it did it was like a complete release for me because I had many doubts during that time.
“It is thanks to those moments that I am where I am today and my family is also able to benefit from where I am in football.”
