On 16 June 2026, defending Senegal’s goal against France, there will be a goalkeeper who ten years earlier showed up every morning at an employment center in Normandy to collect unemployment benefits. Édouard Mendy, born in 1992, now a starter for Al-Ahli and the undisputed leader between the posts of Pape Thiaw’s national team, arrived at the World Cup starting from a point in which football wasn’t even a hypothesis.
The summer when everything seemed to end
The summer of 2014 marked the low point. Cherbourg, a French third division club from the town overlooking the English Channel, did not renew his contract after three seasons as a reserve. At twenty-two Mendy found himself without a team and without a salary. It was his mother who showed him the only practicable path: “You have no money, but you worked, so you are entitled to unemployment benefits.” So he went to the job centre, where at the interview he declared that he was a footballer looking for a team. The response of the employee, who advised him to think about something else, tells better than any statistic how remote the prospect of a real career in the world of football was at that moment.
A year as a free agent
The period lasted a whole year, from July 2014 to the summer of 2015. Mendy never stopped training, in order not to lose his rhythm, while the trials with Ajaccio, Toulouse and Paris FC all ended in rejection. In the meantime, his partner was expecting their first child, and the subsidy was not enough for two people. He even went so far as to consider a job outside of football: a friend had asked him to manage a clothing store. He turned down a 900 euro contract with an amateur club, a sum that would have made football an expensive hobby rather than a profession.
The phone call that changed everything
The turning point was a call from a former Cherbourg teammate, who reported that Olympique Marseille was looking for a goalkeeper for the reserves. Mendy showed up for the tryout and in August 2015 was added to the second Marseille team, but was unable to make his professional debut. From there the rise: in 2016 the free transfer to Reims, in Ligue 2, where from the second season he won ownership, promotion to Ligue 1 and the best goalkeeper award in the championship. In 2019, the move to Rennes for 7.5 million, a season as a starter with qualification for the Champions League, and the following year the call that no one, six years earlier, could have imagined.
From Chelsea to the Africa Cup of Nations
On 24 September 2020, Chelsea bought him for 24 million euros on the recommendation of Petr Čech, then club advisor, who had placed him at the top of his list. Mendy became a starter straight away and contributed to the conquest of the Champions League in Porto’s triumphant season, being awarded the best goalkeeper of the tournament. In February 2022 he was the protagonist of the first African Cup of Nations won by Senegal, with two penalties saved in the final against Egypt, and a few months later he played in the World Cup in Qatar, which ended in the round of 16 against England. In 2023 the move to Al-Ahli, in Saudi Arabia, for sixteen million pounds.
Senegal at the World Cup, and a night against France
For the World Cup expanded to 48 teams, Senegal ended up in Group I together with France, Norway and Iraq. Thiaw deploys him without hesitation in front of a squad of senators – Koulibaly, Mané, Idrissa Gueye – flanked by youngsters such as Lamine Camara and Assane Diao of Como, the only Serie A representative among the squad. For Mendy, born in 1992, this could be one of the last great showcases. We remind you that the match between France and Senegal will be played this evening, Tuesday 16 June 2026, at 9.00 pm Italian time at the New York New Jersey Stadium (MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey). It is the inaugural match of Group I, in Italy it will be broadcast on DAZN, Rai 1 and RaiPlay. The most prestigious precedent between the two teams dates back to the Japanese-Korean World Cup in 2002, when the Teranga Lions surprisingly beat the reigning world champions France in the opening match of the tournament thanks to a goal from the late Bouba Diop. Who knows if tonight the streets of Dakar will party again like 24 years ago.
