Time has passed in a hurry, and in the blink of an eye, we have ended the Spring Festival holiday of this Year of the Tiger, and as a fan, it is most appropriate to describe it with the term low driving high. On the first day of the Chinese New Year, our men's football team experienced a dark moment in the history of losing to Vietnam in the world cup Asian qualifiers, and on the sixth day of the Chinese New Year, our women's football team won the Asian Cup for the ninth time in the history of the Asian Cup with a solid epic reversal
Of course, the recent international competitions are not only the World Preliminary Round and the Women's Asian Cup, the 2021 Cameroon Africa Cup of Nations is also in full swing, and just in the early morning of February 7, Beijing time, the African Cup of Nations final began, against the two sides are currently the world's highest ranked African team Senegal and the African Cup of Nations seven-time champion Egypt, the result of the two teams in 120 minutes failed to break the opponent's goal, and finally Senegal defeated Egypt 4:2 in the penalty shootout, successfully won the first African Cup of Nations championship in the history of the team
In the penalty shootout, Senegalese goalkeeper Edouard Mendy saved the opponent's key penalty, and throughout the cup, Mendy played well, making 5 appearances, 3 of which he kept clean sheets, conceding only 2 goals in total, and also saved 1 penalty in the penalty shootout in the final, which also helped him win the best goalkeeper of this African Cup
Speaking of Mendy, he is undoubtedly a representative of luck, but also a representative of inspiration, as early as 2014 by the Ligue 1 team Cherbourg sacked Mendy once needed to rely on unemployment benefits to survive, and considered leaving the football industry, and in 2016 The Ligue 2 team Reims signed him, giving him the opportunity to be reborn, he lived up to expectations, in 2018 to help the team return to Ligue 1, he was also selected for the Senegalese national team for the first time, until after joining Chelsea in September 2020, Mendy began one peak after another in his career
According to the statistics of the data website Squawka, since joining Chelsea, Eduardo Mendy has won an average of one title in every 27.7 games (Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, Africa Cup), he has maintained a clean sheet in the Champions League final and the African Cup final, is the first player in history to achieve this achievement, and won 4 individual awards (UEFA Goalkeeper of the Year, Champions League Best Goalkeeper, FIFA Goalkeeper of the Year, African Cup Best Goalkeeper), it is worth mentioning that He was the first African player in history to win Goalkeeper of the Year
Mendy's story is incredibly lucky and inspirational, and after the successful conclusion of the African Cup of Nations, he will return to Chelsea and follow the team to Abu Dhabi to play in the Club World Cup, and it is not surprising that this year's Club World Cup title will be firmly in the pocket of Chelsea
On the last day of this month, that is, on February 28, Beijing time, Chelsea will also compete with Liverpool for the 21/22 English League Cup final at Wembley Stadium, if Chelsea can win the title again, then Mendy will have to create a magical record of winning three important cups in a row in January. We'll see