Eduard Mendy was at th verge of cutting tiers with the game he always loved to play, because he was with no club and was also suffering serious financial issues which made him move back into his parents house.
He signed his first professional contract with fifth tier French football team, Cherbourg in 2011. He was later released by the club in 2014 at the age of 22. This really affected him badly, he became unemployed, with no source of income and his partner and him were expecting their first baby, which made him put his aspirations for looking for a new club on hold, and he started looking for a job to help support his family.
He was without a club for over a year, but with encouragement from family and friends with the burning desire he still had for the game, he decided to give football a chance again. He finally got an opportunity with French side, Marseille reserves. He was signed as a fourth choice goalkeeper making no senior appearances for the team.
He was later signed by French ligue 2 side, Reims in the 2016/17 ligue 2 season. He quickly established himself in the team as a first choice goalkeeper. He played a very big role in the clubs winning of the 2017/18 Ligue 2 title, which gained them promotion into the French Ligue 1.
He played in all 38 games in the Ligue 1 2018/19 season, keeping 14 clean sheets in all league 1 games, which was the 3rd highest clean sheet of any goalkeeper in the League, helping his newly promoted side finish 8th in the league.
He was later signed by Reims rivals, Rennes in the 2019/20 season. He quickly established himself at the team as the first choice goalkeeper, helping them qualify for their first ever Champions League competition.
Eduard Mendy was finally recognized by one of Europe's biggest club, Chelsea. He was signed by Chelsea for 22 million Euros.
Chelsea st that time had a first choice goalkeeper named Kepa Arrizabalaga, signing him in 2018 for a fee of 72 million Euros, which was a record fee for signing a goalkeeper. Kepa's form was very unstable, which led to the signing of Eduard Mendy.
A lot of fans were not sure of Mendy's ability as a goalkeeper, which made him had a lot of doubters, but he quickly shot them up with an impressive Premier League debut season. He kept an impressive 16 clean sheets and also contributed to 17 League games victory. He became the first ever African goalkeeper to play for Chelsea's senior team.
He also had an impressive first Champions League campaign, playing a total of 12 games and securing 9 clean sheets, which was the most clean sheet ever kept by a goalkeeper in their first UCL campaign.
He also went ahead to win his first Champions league trophy, beating Premier league rivals, Manchester city by 1 : 0 score line, securing the trophy and also a Champions League finals clean sheet.
He was awarded the UEFA Goalkeeper of the year award and The Best FIFA Goalkeeper award, becoming the first African Goalkeeper to ever win both awards.
He then proceeded to represent his country Senegal in the 2021 AFCON competition. He couldn't play in their first two games because he fell ill, but he came back better than ever, leading his country to their first ever AFCON trophy and also winning the best AFCON 2021 Goalkeeper award, defeating Egypt's Mohamed Abou Gabal.
He returned back to Chelsea for their Super Cup game against Europa League winners, Villarreal. He led them to their second ever Super Cup win since 1998. They've lost all their last 3 Super Cup trophies, 2012 they lost to Atletico Madrid by 4 : 1, 2013 they drew to Bayern Munich by 2 : 2, then lost at penalty shootout by 5 : 4, 2019 they drew to liverpool 2 : 2, then proceeded to lose in penalty shootout by 5 : 4, so it safe to say Mendy really help them secure the 2021 Super Cup.
From a struggling career to being unemployed for a year and now becoming one of the top Goalkeepers in the world with different trophies, awards and medals to his name, I give you Eduard Osoque Mendy.