Senegal has an angel and a devil: Mendy, from the unemployment line to world stardom between feats and mistakes

• Final phase Tournament draw

What if stopping a ball, in reality, was the least of it?

That was what

(Montivilliers, France, 1992) asked himself when everyone had forgotten about him.

He was 23 years old.

He had been playing in Chebourg, the French soccer underground, but they didn't even want him there.

He was unemployed for a year and collecting the subsidy, hoping that someone would decide to give him a chance.

Months went by and they proposed to go sell clothes.

He accepted.

He returned to his parents' house.

And the phone finally rang.

A chain of coincidences and contacts (an old teammate from Cheburgo, a goalkeeping coach from Marseille, and a link with an agent who saw business in him) led him to the Stade de Reims.

And the story, the one that takes place on the surface, could already begin.

Édouard Mendy is a goalkeeper who has come from so low that, once he conquered the top of football with Chelsea, any subsequent fall can cushion it better.

Despite starting the World Cup with Senegal with a legion of critics demanding his replacement - he missed the two goals that cost the opening defeat against the Netherlands - his coach,

, remained firm.

"My trust in Mendy is blind."

His match against Qatar on the second day was already extraordinary, also making one of the best saves of the tournament;

and already in the victory against Ecuador that provided the pass to the second round to the Leones del Teranga, he maintained the type with three saves.

This Sunday it will be Mendy's turn to face in the Al Khor tent that legion of excellent English attackers that he has known so well since he arrived in the Premier League in September 2020 [on the recommendation of the legendary goalkeeper

], including his teammate in Stamford Bridge

.

In this selection from Senegal, in fact, ten footballers with contracts in England play, six in the Premier and four in the Championship.

revolted yesterday.

, whom the Senegalese federation sent to speak on the eve of the match against England despite being, until now, Mendy's substitute.

Although the coach Aliou Cissé did not appear at the Qatar convention center either, a member as a player of that team that in the 2002 World Cup beat France in its debut and reached the quarterfinals of the tournament, where it lost against Turkey.

"Cisse has been ill for two days," said his assistant, the Frenchman

.

Bad timing at Chelsea

Mendy lost his status as the undisputed starter against

at Chelsea this season.

And his new coach in London,

, is not clear about his continuity.

He even considers incorporating

, Unai Simón's second in the Spanish team and whom he knows from his time at Brighton.

But if Mendy has achieved anything in this World Cup in Qatar, it has been to change a destructive trend that led him to be one of the main suspects of the African team.

Gone was that Champions League (2020-21) won with

's Chelsea after keeping a clean sheet in nine of the 12 games he played -including the final against Manchester City-, and the awards from both FIFA and UEFA to the best goalkeeper of the year.

Osu good fortune in the penalty shootouts with Senegal (both in the final of the African Cup and in the qualifying round for the World Cup in Qatar), always with Egypt as the victim despite not being a renowned specialist in maximum penalties.

In the Premier he only stopped one, Agüero, of the nine thrown.

El

, another of Cissé's assistants and also a hero in the 2002 World Cup, sees an angel where others see a devil.

"I know our goalkeeper.

If we reach a penalty shootout in any game, we will win.

Easy".

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