With personal strength, ease of play and wit, French left-back Ferland Mendy, whose career was stalled at the age of 14 by a hip problem, will play his first Champions League final on Saturday against Real Madrid against Liverpool in England. Premier League, Paris.

In his childhood home in the Yvelines city of Equeliy, forty kilometers from the Stade de France, which will host the final in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis, everyone knows the 26-year-old, but no one wants to talk about him.

His family, including his mother, still lives in the newly renovated apartment building. There, his childhood friends and relatives are wary of the undertakings of a neighbor star.

In this small town of 4,000 people, about thirty kilometers west of Paris, Ferland, cousin of Chelsea and Senegalese goalkeeper Édouard, began his journey between the corridors of the buildings.

“At that time he was young and thin, but very strong physically. He knew how to touch the ball, and we thought he was in the club,” explains Hasan Gyzul, one of the teachers at the local social center at the time.

He was the first to notice him and persuade him to take part in a course among the living, at the age of eight. At the time, he played “no pressure” but was “impressive”.

He had a “strong mentality” and worked to “strengthen his physical strength” and show his physical superiority, the professor adds.

– “Step by step” –

At the age of ten, “Ferland was very good with his left foot and he makes a difference from the first touch,” according to what the current Paris FC pioneer (second class) recalls, referring to his dribbling and prowess on the outside of his foot and the power of his throws.

In the early years of his career at Paris Saint-Germain, he excelled as a left-back, as well as for his “runs, change of pace, physical strength and ground strikes”.

Defensively, the Senegalese player had to improve in duels and land grabs, “but he advanced quickly in positioning.”

On the pitch or in the dressing room, Ferland Mendy is known for his wit and jokes, always playing with a “smile”, according to his former coach. “He loved to hit the ball and play the game. He was not a leader. “

While training with Saint-Germain in 2008, he faced “studying problems”, the most serious of which was a hip injury that kept him out of stadiums and then permanently out of the Parisian club.

The player of the royal team tells the French newspaper Le Parisien that he had to go through a rehabilitation phase for six months “for some time in a wheelchair and then on a bed. Step by step they taught me how to walk again. “

“He had to stop playing football, he never walked,” his former coaches told AFP. At that time, his father passed away, and he went through a very difficult period.

– “Artistic Excellence” –

In 2012 “He came with us because no one wanted to sign him and wanted to restart his career, so it was a blessing for us,” said Cyril Cabrera, U19 team coach at Mont-la-Joli amateur club. “You can’t deprive yourself of a player like that.”

In addition to being “fun” and “humble,” his former coach recalls “thinking of steel” because climbing to the top after this injury is “very difficult.”

At the height of the season, during the decider, “I put Ferland in the center while he was full back and he led us to victory with an assist and a goal”, referring to his “easy game”. and technical skill.

Suddenly everything changed. He arrived at Le Havre in 2013 and signed his first professional contract two years later when his team was in the second division. In 2017, he spent two seasons at Lyon before moving to Real Madrid for €48m.

During the matches, the French international (7 matches) gained confidence and carried the baton on the left flank of the Brazilian Marcelo. Today he has become an indispensable player in his position.