Édouard Mendy

Édouard Osoque Mendy is a Senegalese professional goalkeeper, born in Montivilliers, France, on 1 March 1992.¹² He plays for Saudi Pro League club Al-Ahli and for the Senegal national team.¹ Released by Cherbourg in 2014 and without a club for a year, he rebuilt his career to become, at Chelsea, the first African goalkeeper to win both the UEFA Goalkeeper of the Year and The Best FIFA Goalkeeper awards.¹

Mendy was born to a Senegalese mother and a Bissau-Guinean father, and is a cousin of the footballer Ferland Mendy.¹ He joined Le Havre's academy at thirteen, dropped down to CS Municipaux Le Havre, and began his professional career at third-tier Cherbourg.¹ Released in 2014, he spent a year without a club and, at twenty-two, registered for unemployment and looked for jobs outside football, before Marseille signed him in 2015 as a reserve goalkeeper.¹

At Reims, Mendy established himself as first choice and helped the club win the 2017–18 Ligue 2 title, keeping eighteen clean sheets that season.¹ He joined Rennes in August 2019 and Chelsea in September 2020 for a reported £22 million, becoming the first African goalkeeper to play for Chelsea's senior team.¹ In his first Chelsea season he equalled the record of nine clean sheets in a Champions League campaign and kept a clean sheet in the final as Chelsea won the title; he was named UEFA Goalkeeper of the Year and The Best FIFA Goalkeeper for 2021.¹ After falling out of favour, he signed for Al-Ahli in June 2023 and was the best goalkeeper of the competition as the club won the AFC Champions League Elite in 2025.¹

Mendy was called up by Guinea-Bissau in November 2016, when his father was gravely ill, but he rejected the call and pledged his future to Senegal, making his debut on 18 November 2018.¹² He was Senegal's first-choice goalkeeper at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, where Senegal finished runners-up, and at the 2021 tournament, which Senegal won and at which he was named the best goalkeeper.¹ He played at the 2022 World Cup and won a second Africa Cup of Nations title with Senegal in 2025.¹ He was appointed a Grand Officer of the National Order of the Lion after the 2021 title.¹

This section sets out different positions as reported in the sources. It is not a verdict by the museum. Neither the English nor the Arabic article makes any statement of Mendy's religion: the English article has no personal-life section and its infobox carries no religion field, and the Arabic article's text and infobox are likewise silent.¹² With no attestation in the sources consulted, his faith is recorded in the museum's data as unknown.¹²

• Édouard Mendy — English Wikipedia¹
• Édouard Mendy — Arabic Wikipedia²