sport news Mendy's chance to be hero again after turbulent year trends now
For Edouard Mendy, the giant of a man standing between England and another World Cup quarter-final, it has been a turbulent 2022.
From euphoric highs and hero status with both club and country to errors, injuries and seismic changes to the landscape at Chelsea, where he has lost his place and now fears for his future.
Contract talks broke down in the summer, with Mendy disappointed to be offered a deal worth significantly less than the £190,000 a week earned by Kepa Arrizabalaga who was, at the time, his understudy.
Edouard Mendy will be in goal for Senegal when they take on England on Sunday evening
The Chelsea goalkeeper has endured a major dip in form but remains his country's No 1
Under Graham Potter, however, Mendy has slipped out of favour, only recalled when Kepa was injured, and the new Chelsea manager is thought to be plotting another raid on his former club for Robert Sanchez.
The Brighton keeper has a very close relationship with Ben Roberts, a mentor as well as his goalkeeping coach, who made the move to Stamford Bridge with Potter in September.
Mendy is still only halfway through the five-year contract he signed when he arrived from Rennes in 2020 but has already worked out that, at the age of 30, it might be better to move on.
Even by football’s standards, it represents a sudden fall from the pedestal. In January, he was recognised by FIFA as the world’s best goalkeeper of 2021, a year in which he won the Champions League with Chelsea and kept a clean sheet in the final against Manchester City.
Mendy has gone from winning the Club World Cup to losing his place in the Chelsea team
Manager Graham Potter is rumoured to be looking at taking Brighton and Spain's Robert Sanchez (pictured) to Chelsea
Mendy followed this with a heroic performance in the Africa Cup of Nations final, as Senegal beat Egypt on penalties to win their first title.
He dashed to Abu Dhabi to play for Chelsea in the final of the Club World Cup as they beat Palmeiras of Brazil. Then, one month later, he was back in Africa for another tense shootout victory as Senegal beat Egypt again in a play-off for the World Cup. It represented an incredible personal rise for a player who had been without a club and signed on for unemployment benefit in 2014 after
