Former Chelsea and Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, who recently retired from international football but still plays professional football with Al Ahli in Saudi Arabia, revealed to The Guardian's Ed Aarons that his 2026 AFCON win with Senegal was "10 times better than winning the Champions League."
Mendy, who was involved in the dramatic and controversial African Cup of Nations final against Morocco in January, where the game was suspended for 15 minutes after some players of the Senegal team agreed to walk off the pitch in protest at Morocco being awarded a penalty in the dying stages.
The game was to be abandoned, with Morocco being awarded a default 3-0 victory, crowning them champions of Africa for the first time. A result that came two months after the abandonment of the final, after a governing body deemed that Senegal had effectively forfeited the game.
Mendy revealed that when Real Madrid's Brahim Diaz was standing over the ball, ready to take his penalty, he had to almost forget what had gone on before and maintain focus.
"I realised two steps before he shot … usually when a player does a Panenka, they slow down for the last step, but I noticed he did it early. “I know his preferred side is on the right. But when I saw him slow down way before, I just stood up and managed to catch the ball.”"
The Senegalese keeper, who was a key part of Chelsea's Champions League triumph in 2021 over Manchester City in Porto, as well as the Senegal side that won the AFCON title in Cameroon, was also awarded the Yashin Award for being the best goalkeeper.
Since Mendy's departure from Chelsea, he's added an Asian Champions League with his current side, Al Ahli, but suffered a knee injury against Norway in their World Cup round of 32 game, calling it a day on his international career last week after getting 59 caps for his country.
"But at the end of the call (with Patrick Viera), I asked for some time to really think about everything. A couple of days later, I called him and explained that I wanted to stick to my decision. I started thinking about it after the AFCON, and I just concluded that it was my time to say stop."
When asked about what meant more to him, his Champions League winner's medal with Chelsea, or his AFCON success, he said that the two titles were incomparable looking back on it.
"[Winning Afcon] was the best moment of my football career: it was 10 times better [than the Champions League]. I can compare now because I’ve also won the Asian Champions League twice."
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