Edouard Mendy story - From heavy uncertainty to every footballer's dream

Until recently only few heard of him. He was Rennes goalkeeper and gave great performances for Les Rouge et Noir at the north-east of France but if you are not playing for PSG, Monaco, Marseille, Lyon or even Lille - the spotlight is rarely on to you.

Senegalese goalkeeper Edouard Mendy is now one of the best goalkeepers (statistically speaking) in European top leagues and the footballing public is still cautious with mentioning him alongside top names such as Oblak, Ederson, Alisson or Courtois.

The 29-year-old was born in Montivilliers, France and interestingly - is eligible to play for Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Les Bleus. Mendy initially joined up with Guinea Bissau in honour of his father, but subsequently switched allegiance to the Teranga Lions.

But before his rise started, this goalie had numerous obstacles that would de-motivate almost anyone who dreams of being a world-class footballer. And that is where Mendy's moto comes in: Jamais lacher! (Never give up).

In an interview for Oliver Holt and DailyMail, Mendy remembers all the issues he had to face and speaks about the experience he gained through them. Memories start rushing - being released by his French third division club in the summer of 2014, frantic messages he sent to his agent asking if anybody else wanted him, his parents' cramped flat in the Le Havre suburb of Caucriauville,...

That year was the crossroad and before it all started looking better, Edouard was at the verge of hanging up his gloves and starts providing for his loved ones as "ordinary" people do.

He and his partner, who was pregnant with their first child, moved in his parents' place that summer because they could no longer afford a place of their own - trying to rescue his career, Edouard was putting all his efforts into training without being paid at the local club's academy.

That 2014, when he turned 23, an age where most top-class footballers are already chasing glories, saw him without a club. He had to draw unemployment benefit, in order to provide for his young family.

He was going through hard times and it looked like his dream of making it as a professional footballer was dying. A friend of his, who knew that Mendy has a nick for business and knew that he had studied hard in college, offered Edouard the chance to be the manager of a menswear shop. Senegalese was few thoughts away from taking that offer and stepping away from the ball and the "woodwork".

However - Jamais lacher! A phrase he hopes will infuse into his sons, Elias and Eden.

Mendy refused to give up and because of such approach when things are not going your way - he now sees his own name with all the other participants of arguably the biggest game in European football.

Of course, every player that steps out on the grass of Dragao Stadium next weekend will be there because they went through hardships for their dreams and made sacrifices. But it is hard to believe that any of them could have fought harder or achieved such a twist of fortune in such a short space of time as Mendy.

Let's go back again to that 2014. Mendy was at AS Cherbourg at the end that season. The team was in the second division of the Championnat National, the fourth tier of the French football league system.

Most of the time as reserve keeper, Mendy was there for three seasons. He was released just as he was starting to get more playing time.

'The worst moment for me, the lowest point I got to, was when it was coming to the end of the transfer window that summer. Cherbourg had released me and I had been trying constantly to contact my agent, leaving him voicemails and sending him texts, and he just wasn't replying. I was doing this every day and it got to the last day of the transfer window.' Mendy confesses.

'He did not even have the courage to speak to me directly. When he did get in touch, it was just a text message saying, 'Sorry, it is the last day of the window and I am not going to be able to find a club for you, so you won't be able to sign a contract with anyone, so I suggest you look for work and continue to train by yourself'.'

He was without a club but he found strength to be more determined than ever. He went back to where he had trained as a kid, the Le Havre youth academy, and worked there. He almost never left the gym and when he wasn't there, he went to the local stadium and trained there. When he could not work at the stadium - he trained on a random field with his brother.

And this is 2014-15. Let's compare, shall we?

That season, one of his opponents on the 29th of May, Kevin De Bruyne, also a 29-year-old, would join City from Wolfsburg for 78 million USD (8.4 billion KSH) while Mendy was training like a nomad at Le Havre academy.

'One of the things that saved me,' says Mendy, 'was that I was lucky at the time with the situation in my home life. I was living in Le Havre and I was able to live with my family so that meant that I wasn't spending as much of the money I was getting from social security and unemployment benefit. My partner was pregnant with our first child so it was really hard when you knew that you might not be able to provide for your family.

'I knew I had to find a solution and the solution was either do I find a club who I can play for professionally or do I go out to work like everyone else and provide for my daily needs that way? So that period was tough because I was torn between those two decisions. One was something I might have to do and the other was what I wanted to do.

'I got to the point where I was applying for other jobs. I had studied quite hard in the past and I had always been quite good at business and commerce. I had a good friend who had a menswear shop, men's fashion. He was convinced I would do a good job for him. They offered me the chance to run the shop for them.

'He knew my intention was to try to get a contract with a football club but it was a really close-run thing about whether I committed to that job. Eight days after my friend first floated that idea about managing the shop, I got a call from Marseille offering me the chance of going there to be one of the back-up keepers at the club. That was when things started to change.'

He was nowhere near the first team of Marseille as fourth-choice goalkeeper. A one-year amateur contract on a minimum salary. He played a few times that season for Marseille's reserves.

'Mendy was like a spare wheel, a filler,' said Dominique Bernatowicz, the goalkeeper coach at the Marseille academy.

That is when fortune began to smile on him as those performances for Marseille reserves were enough to get him noticed.

He joined Ligue 2 Reims at the start of the 2016-17 season as reserve goalkeeper. First game of the season against Amiens, Reims's starting goalkeeper, Johann Carrasso, was sent off five minutes into the match. Mendy was sent between the posts to replace Carrasso and he turned that opportunity to his advantage with a great performance that earned him more minutes on the pitch in the following games.

He was made Reims's starting goalkeeper the next season. Reims were promoted to Ligue 1 while Mendy kept 19 clean sheets in 38 league games.

In his first top-flight season he played every game for the club and at the end of it - Rennes were the ones who recognized Edouard's possibilities and snatched him. The same Rennes where Petr Cech played before signing for Chelsea. During that time Mendy also made his international debut for the Lions of Teranga.

Meanwhile in London, Chelsea's first-choice goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga was still struggling to establish himself, two years after he had arrived from Athletic Bilbao for the staggering amount of 100.5 million USD (10.8 billion KSH).

Chelsea needed a back up plan so they announced that they had paid Rennes 31 million USD (3.4 billion KSH) for the Senegalese. Mendy's predecessor at Rennes and established Chelsea legend - Petr Cech - was crucial for the deal.

The African worked so hard and had to seize such a massive opportunity because - if you look at it chronologically - six years ago, he was on the edge on managing a clothes store. Now, he will take part in the Champions League showpiece.

'When I look back on my career path,' he says, 'from the first moment I signed my first professional contract or when I was unemployed for a while, if anyone would have said to me that a few years down the line, I was going to be playing in a Champions League final, I wouldn't have believed them. I wouldn't have listened to them.

'I feel lucky now to be at a really positive point in my career and playing for a club where I have the opportunity to win trophies but what has happened is about more than luck. I have worked really, really hard throughout that period to have achieved what I have achieved so far to make that career jump. This final is the reward for that hard work.

'I agree that a lot of people would have given up at 23 if they were in the situation I was in. It was a test to overcome. Une epreuve a surmonter. It was a test I learned to overcome and it has opened up some really beautiful avenues for me. I think my mental strength is something that helped me. I stayed strong throughout the whole period and the difficult times. To my own credit, I never gave up.

'I had that conviction and belief and I knew I had to work hard. I was prepared to work two or three times harder than other goalkeepers to improve. So when I was going back to the academy to train, I would go to the gym and if I didn't go to the gym, I would go to the stadium and run. I wanted people to be able to say, 'We want to sign that player'.'

Defensive solidity is what Chelsea's success under Thomas Tuchel has been built on. Mendy has brought order and confidence to the Blues' back line - he kept 11 clean sheets in the new manager's first 15 games.

His catch of Sergio Aguero's Panenka penalty kick earlier this month showed the calmness of the African between the posts and gave a huge boost for his team to turn the score around on the English champions and their rivals in the final of Champions League.

A successful African goalkeeper in the English top flight is a rare sight. That is why Mendy feels as something of a trailblazer.

'I am one of the first at a big club here as far as I am aware,' he says. 'If I can do my bit to open the path or make that passage from Africa easier for players in the future, then that would be great.'

He has not forgotten what it is like when life is hard. His humility made him popular with his team-mates and with staff at the club too.

'I am constantly driving myself on to prove that Chelsea didn't make a mistake and that they made the right choice,' he says. Earlier this season, former manager Frank Lampard praised Mendy for his attitude.

'So much has changed for me,' says Mendy. 'There are lots of reasons why I went from that player who couldn't get a club to where I am now. I was always convinced of my own ability. I was really sure I could finally go all the way and make it as professional player. It helped convince me of that when I saw other goalkeepers playing.

'I was confident. I saw other goalkeepers when I trained alongside them. When I was without a club and I was on unemployment benefit, I went back to the club where I had been in the academy and I was training alongside goalkeepers there who had pro contracts and I thought, 'I'm as good as them, in fact I'm better than them, I can go all the way'.

'My family provided really strong support. They were always behind me, even in the tough times when I was struggling financially. And the big thing was that I was going to be a father for the first time and it was an inspiration for me to know that I was going to have my own family responsibilities and I needed to be a success for my son.

'One of the things I can now do for my son is to say to him if life gets tough like it did for me, you can lean on those tough times to be able to become stronger and get better and improve and never give up. Never give up. That is the key. Jamais lacher. Hopefully he will be able to take those lessons from my own personal experience and if ever he needs to draw on those, he has got that ready for him.'

A true role-model story for any of the youngsters who question if they should fight for their ambitions. Never give up!