Pre-match press conferences with polished speeches are not always of great interest. And then sometimes there are surreal scenes. It happened during the press point before the Manchester City – Bruges match which takes place this Wednesday evening (9 p.m.) in the Champions League in Group A, that of PSG which travels to Leipzig.
City defender Kyle Walker faces the press and first answers questions about the state of form of the vice-champions of Europe. His sentences are ready-made. “It’s an important week for us. We need to regain our morale to attack this match and approach the derby with a positive dynamic and more confidence than we have at the moment. All this purrs very quietly when coming from the back of the room, a question will destabilize the strong defender. It comes from a journalist who works for an Irish radio station, Jim Conlan.
“Who is he talking about?” “
Question from the journalist: “I was wondering what it was like to compete (at Manchester City) for the right-back position with Bernard Mendy. Heard he has character? “Kyle Walker then makes big eyes and turns to the press officer of the club on the left and asks him:” Who is he talking about? Mendy? The Citizen media manager then asks our colleague to repeat his question. The latter repeats it and therefore sinks a little more: “Yes, Kyle, I was wondering what it was like to be in competition for your post with Bernard Mendy who has character and knows how to show it in the locker room. Is he pushing you to be better? Walker asks, “Mendy, does he play at PSG?” In total confusion, the media manager ends the conversation and moves on to another question.
For those who find it difficult to follow, the confusion of our Irish colleague is twofold and quite laughable. He initially confuses Mendy and Mendy. He talks about Bernard Mendy. Until proven otherwise, the former PSG full-back (2000-2008) has never played for Manchester City and this is unlikely to happen since he retired in 2017. He is now assistant coach of the PSG women’s team.
So let’s go over the first name error because the Irish journalist confuses Bernard and Benjamin Mendy. The latter is evolving well at Manchester City. With a second confusion: the former French international is not likely to overshadow Kyle Walker. Because the 2018 world champion is precisely in the shade. He is remanded in custody, following charges of four rapes and one sexual assault which allegedly took place between October 2020 and August 2021 at his home. Beyond the first name error, our colleague had forgotten this “detail”. He apologized on his twitter profile on Wednesday.
