He established himself as regular in the following seasons at Reims and Rennes. Mendy was released in 2014, after which he almost quit football, before getting an opportunity with Marseille's reserves.
Starting his career in his native France, Mendy played in the Le Havre academy before signing professional terms with third division Cherbourg in 2011. If Pickford errs, the only reputation that suffers is his own.Édouard Osoque Mendy (born 1 March 1992) is a professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Chelsea and the Senegal national team. The difference is that, whenever Pickford makes a mistake, “nobody uses his performances to proclaim that white players don’t make good goalkeepers,” Hislop said. “Everyone comes under the spotlight once in a while,” Hislop said. Pickford has come under scrutiny in the last few years both for perceived technical flaws in his game and for a tendency toward rashness. Hislop, now a commentator for ESPN, zooms in on the case of Jordan Pickford, the current first-choice goalkeeper for both Everton and England’s national team. All he can do, he said, is “show I can really perform at this level, and perhaps change people’s mentalities on these things.” To those who have had to endure the same prejudices, though, who spent their careers hoping to be an agent of change, that is part of the problem.
Mendy accepts that it falls to him to help overturn the stereotype. Black players are still statistically less likely to play in central or attacking midfield, for example, and are far more likely to be praised by commentators for physical attributes like pace and power than about more intangible qualities like “intelligence” and “leadership.” And very rarely, it seems, are they given a chance at the elite European level to play in goal. Dig a little deeper, though, and their pernicious influence remains. Soccer has long considered itself a meritocracy - at least on the field - that has moved beyond old, damaging stereotypes. Howard sees an echo of that in the dearth of Black goalkeepers. “ There was this idea that they were not as cerebral.” “There used to be a stigma attached to the idea of a Black quarterback in the N.F.L.,” said Tim Howard, the former Everton and United States goalkeeper. But only Senegal, with two goalkeepers - Mendy and Gomis - playing in the world’s biggest club competition, can say with confidence it has two goalkeepers competing at professional soccer’s highest level. Ondoa’s cousin - and national teammate - Onana does, at least, play in the Champions League for Ajax. 1 goalkeeper, Fabrice Ondoa, has not yet left Belgium’s top division for one of Europe’s marquee leagues.
And while no African country has produced quite so many elite goalkeepers as Cameroon, which once sent Jacques Songo’o and Thomas N’Kono to play in Spain and Joseph-Antoine Bell off to a long career in France, that nation’s current No. But the first-choice goalkeepers of Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Ghana all still play in Africa. African ones are even more uncommon.Įvery year, for example, the traditional powerhouse nations of West Africa have dozens of players on rosters in Europe’s major leagues. Black goalkeepers are chronically underrepresented in European soccer. The contrast between the paltry amount of Black goalkeepers and the number of Black outfield players across all of Europe’s elite leagues is such that it is hard to write it off as coincidence or the illusion of a momentary snapshot. While Mendy has quickly established himself at Chelsea, the five other Black goalkeepers currently registered to Premier League squads, including the United States international Zack Steffen at Manchester City, have yet to play in the league. The figures in England are almost as striking. Last year, appearances by Black goalkeepers were similarly rare: only two of the 92 men who played goal in Italy and Spain, and only two of the 36 who featured in Germany.
Before last week’s international break, 77 goalkeepers had appeared for at least a minute across the Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga.