Chelsea clearly made one of the signings of the summer when they brought in Edouard Mendy from Rennes last year.
The Senegalese shot-stopper didn’t necessarily look the most exciting purchase when he first moved to Stamford Bridge, with some Chelsea fans likely to have felt they needed a bigger name to come in in goal.
MORE: Timo Werner’s hilarious post-CL final interview
However, Mendy has had an incredible debut season for the Blues, and ends the campaign as a European Champion after a clean sheet in yesterday’s Champions League final victory over Manchester City.
According to Opta Joe, Mendy made history by keeping nine clean sheets in the competition this season – the most that has ever been achieved by a ‘keeper in their debut season in the tournament…
9 – Édouard Mendy’s nine clean sheets for Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League this season is the most ever by a goalkeeper in their debut campaign in the competition. Wall. #UCLFinal pic.twitter.com/BdVrIGOj3M
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) May 29, 2021
That’s some feat by Mendy, and it continues part of his incredible story in the last few years.
Remarkably, the 29-year-old was without a club as recently as 2015 and later admitted in an interview (quotes via SI Soccer) that he came close to giving up on football.
Mendy fully deserves his success after settling in brilliantly at Chelsea, playing a key role in making them so strong defensively in the Champions League this season as they defied the odds to beat favourites City in Porto last night.
goalkeeper mendy my regar to you keep it up
Good job Mendy