In the game of jerseys, the number 22 evokes uncertainty. First the prerogative of the third goalkeeper (how can we forget the eternal Ettori, Martini, Charbonnier or Ramé, wrapped in their colorful shirts?), it has become, by force of circumstances, the trademark of the new kid or, less enviable, from the supporting player. In both cases, it gives its owner a shifting status, where nothing is done. He is, in essence, the number of the one who will have to whip. Note that Franck Ribéry, revelation of the 2006 World Cup for the Blues, was the standard-bearer, thus revealing that there is a path, steep but not impossible, to ultimately becoming, if not unbreakable, a player who counts.
It is therefore dressed in this way that Ferland Mendy walks the lawn of the Stade de France, in this month of November 2018, to honor his first selection, as a starter. This friendly meeting against Uruguayans with revenge after their defeat a few months earlier at the World Cup is both a test for someone who has only been professional for three years and the logical continuation of things, as he impresses the footballing community, just one year after his arrival in Lyon. At 23, the Franco-Senegalese is at the pinnacle. Archetype of the left side “modern”according to Johan Louvel, his coach in the Le Havre B team, “a true left-hander, a player who had athletic characteristics, power and explosiveness.”
Certainly taking advantage of the absences of the holder Lucas Hernandez and his understudy Benjamin Mendy, the Lyonnais begins the match with a knife between his teeth. The young left-back stands out. If he projects himself – something quite new for the Blues for at least a decade – he especially does the job in terms of physical intensity. It is also from him that the only pawn in the game comes. In the winger position, he offers the goal to Griezmann on a plate, which provokes a penalty which Giroud transforms. We had worse beginnings. From then on, we think he’s launched, ready to tickle the ever-present Hernandez and, who knows, become the Blues’ starter for the next decade. This was without a few pitfalls, misunderstandings and injuries, sometimes intertwined, suggesting a succession of missed meetings.
A destiny to force
Normally, the route is marked for young French talents: training center, youth selections of the French team, Espoirs then the A. If all goes well. The start of Ferland Mendy’s career calls for something else; a rarity dear to dreamers and football ingenues. The very people who establish players with different backgrounds as nemesis of a football made smooth and predictable by decades of excessive money. Nothing was given to him, he who saw himself, as a teenager, close the doors of the PSG training center because of a nasty hip injury, which left the club’s reserve teams, then that of FC Mantois in his native Yvelines.
I had a lot of discussions with him, I told him to use his left foot more and to read the game better, because he had this tendency to move too far forward.
Johan Louvel, his coach at HAC
It was only in 2013 that the slender defender really found the right fit in Le Havre, but still in the reserve team: “We were told about an extraordinary player, too big for the club he played for”says Johan Louvel, his first coach at HAC. “He liked to dribble, eliminate and overwhelm, in short, real potential to work on”, remembers the one who now serves on the Emirates side. With great potential, great hopes, which require an enormous amount of work to erase its few flaws in order to reach the very highest level: “I had a lot of discussions with him, I told him to use his left foot more and to read the game better, because he had this tendency to move too far forward. » Trading his passion for unfailing serenity, Mendy emerged from his chrysalis.
Heating blue
From his 9 selections, between 2018 and 2022, Ferland Mendy makes 6 starts and 3 appearances, for 7 victories, a draw and a defeat. A more than correct assessment therefore, in a team that is certainly ultra-dominant, but which still tells something. That of a player who is not a regular but who, when left alone by injuries, is an essential part of the France team. Called up in March 2021, a few months before the Euro, the fresh champion of Spain is the favorite to be Hernandez’s understudy. Failed, it will be the eternal stopgap Lucas Digne. Rebelote in September 2022, just before the Qatari World Cup. Yet another failure, it was Theo Hernandez who, thanks to a crazy start to the season at Milan, was going to overwhelm him and join his brother, who was injured in the 15th minute of the first match. Damn twists of fate.
So, how can we explain that he continues with Real, but not with the French team? “When he arrived in Blue, he brought all his good humor, his desire but above all his qualities, reports a person close to the Blues. He was unbeatable one-on-one, and incredible with his header. Deschamps took him because he had no equal in terms of power on the one hand, but above all for his quality in a duel. » In the meantime, what could have happened between the two men? “If something happened between him and the coach I don’t know, but in terms of potential, he has plenty of weapons to be part of the Bluesestimates this same relative. IHe could bring them qualities that they do not have. » Without being in the secret of the gods, this witness does not rule out the possibility of a real incomprehension which, de facto, extends beyond the field.
Competition and tactical incompatibility
It’s an understatement to say that the Blues have shone since Didier Deschamps took charge. Three finals, in five tournaments for a world title. So why change a winning team? Perhaps because Mendy has a different profile, therefore interesting for the Blues. Deschamps, June 2023: “He has already come with us, he also has versatility, since he can also play on the right (he started in this position against Croatia in October 2020, Editor’s note), even if he is a left back. He’s not in top form, but that doesn’t take away from his qualities. » If there is one antiphon that lasts in football, it is this one. The sacrosanct question of profile and its corollary, adaptability. With a less harsh profile on the man than Lucas Hernandez, more technical too, Ferland Mendy can legitimately believe in his blue chances, navigating between the second and third man on the left. “He could bring his football to the Blues if we really give him the opportunitysays a thuriferous Thierry Goudet, when he launched it into the deep end against Sochaux in 2015. In addition to being able to play in a 4 or 5 defense, he has this offensive strength, this technicality and this ease with the ball that few defenders have. »
For a long time, the full-back positions have been the weak points of the France team. From now on, Deschamps has the choice of the king, and inevitably, some suffer.
Thierry Goudet
Louvel, for his part, leans more towards a certain tactical incompatibility, his profile “corresponding better to Real, who like full-backs who project themselves, who give a lot of offensive animation”the complete opposite of the French team where, according to him, “we first focus on defensive players”. An assertion which would be verified in the person of Theo Hernandez, perhaps as much a winger as a full-back at the club, but restricted in his selections in his projections. The two Le Havre coaches agree on one point: the heightened competition on the left. “For a long time, the full-back positions have been the weak points of the French teamsays Thierry Goudet. From now on, Deschamps has the choice of the king, and inevitably, some suffer. » A cliché certainly, but which, well hidden, tells of a paradigm shift in the Blues: the defender positions, after decades of lean conditions, have almost become the most contested.
Small papers, fourth power and Deschamps’ law
It’s also not good to be a quiet person in football. Two schools clash: the loud mouths and the shy, and in the middle runs a river made of media relays. To establish yourself at the highest level, it is good practice to have a high verb. This notion, tinged with an outdated virilism, is nevertheless still current. For people to talk about you, you need to get people talking about you, particularly by speaking out in the media. But knowing how to mobilize the right networks is not something innate, nor something that you learn in football schools or media training. Mendy is known to be “a joker, someone who doesn’t go unnoticed in a locker room”, according to Johan Louvel. His trainer at HAC, Thierry Goudet, says nothing else, describing a “very good boy, pleasant to be around and very polite” and a player “who never put himself forward to the detriment of others”. Appreciated by his coaches and probably his teammates, this reserve is double-edged and can be part of the answer to his absence in Blue. By being too discreet, you get forgotten.
Without being mean, the last episode, in June, is not really to his credit: he is selected on Thursday, and I am informed a week later, the day before the gathering, that he cannot join us because he gets treatment.
Didier Deschamps in August 2023
An episode seems to have permanently damaged the – relative, as we have seen – confidence that Ferland Mendy enjoys with the Deschamps factotum. Alas, the coach comes out of his eternal reserve in August 2023. “Without being mean, the last episode, in June, is not really to his credit: he is selected on Thursday, and I am informed a week later, the day before the gathering, that he cannot join us because ‘he is being treatedhe whispered. Well, I accept it, but besides that, Bouba Kamara had to go on his honeymoon, and he came anyway. » A master of wooden language, La Dèche never says anything randomly. Not exactly stingy with truisms in conference, with the rule of never damaging his players, this projection is therefore not insignificant. Criticizing what he sees as pusillanimity, the coach has, in a few words, made it extremely difficult for Mendy to return to the France team.
Since then, the full-back has no longer been called up by the boss of the Tricolores. He has not played in the blue jersey since September 2022 and a defeat against Denmark, Deschamps preferring his club friend, Eduardo Camavinga, to help out further down the left lane. He still has hope of the arrival of the sea serpent Zidane, who brought him from Ligue 1 and who made him Marcelo’s successor in the biggest club in the world. In 2026, Mendy will only be 30 years old. Finally the right time to no longer be a number 22?
2024-04-30 04:00:11
#Ferland #Mendy #essential #Real #undesirable #national #team #Semifinals #BayernReal #Madrid
