Winner of the 2021 Champions League with Chelsea against Manchester City (1-0, goal by Hai Havertz), with Thiago Silva, N’Golo Kanté or Olivier Giroud, then winner of the Club World Cup a few months later, Édouard Mendy fills his gallery of trophies a little more. The emblematic goalkeeper of the Senegal team, who already lifted the African Cup of Nations trophy on January 18 (the title was withdrawn two months later), won the Asian Champions League with Al-Ahli.
The former Rémois, who has been playing in Saudi Arabia since 2023, had the honor of lifting the cup as captain.
Already title holders thanks to a 2-0 success against Kawasaki Frontale (goals from Galeno and Franck Kessié), Al-Malaki (the Kings) dominated another Japanese team, Machida Zelvia, in the final of the AFC Champions League Elite (1-0, ap), Saturday in Jeddah. Feras Al-Buraikan scored the only goal of the game at the start of overtime against the team from the Toyko region, promoted to J1 in 2023 only. Back-to-back!
Edouard Mendy vs. Cristiano Ronaldo
Former Stade de Reims midfielder Valentin Atangana, former French international hopeful Enzo Millot (silver medalist at the Paris Olympics), Algeria captain Riyad Mahrez and English striker Ivan Toney also started with Al-Ahli, led by German coach Matthias Jaissle.
Kessié, Mendy and Mahrez are therefore double Asian champions but have not yet been crowned Saudi Arabian champions since their arrival in the Middle East. Al-Ahli are 10 points behind the leader, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr, with five days to go. But Al-Ahli is a match behind and challenges Al-Nassr on Wednesday! “CR7” has 24 goals in the Saudi Pro League, while Ivan Toney has 27.
