Real Madrid new boy Ferland Mendy lost his father at 11 and had crippling arthritis at 14 that threatened to derail his dreams of becoming a footballer
THE road to Madrid has been steep for their latest recruit, Ferland Mendy.
A £47m signing from Lyon, the French left-back had a difficult start to life that threatened to derail his footballing aspirations.
At the age of 11, in what would shake the world of any boy, he tragically lost his father.
Then, just a year later, Mendy was diagnosed with a painful hip infection that left him in a wheelchair at 14, and doctors said that he wouldn't be able to play football ever again.
However, through sheer determination and extensive rehab, the young kid learned how to walk again.
And, when he thought he was about to make it at 17, he was released by PSG from their academy, which forced him to start all over again.
HUMBLE START
Mendy was born in Meulan-en-Yvelines, just north of Paris to migrant parents.
According to reports, his mother is from Guinea and his dad originally came to France from Senegal.
He grew up in a tough neighbourhood, where he dreamed of emulating past French heroes like Lilian Thuram and Zinedine Zidane.
But the family were rocked when Mendy's father died when he was 11-years-old, and he lived poor with no toys and hardly any money.
Football suddenly became his only route out of the slums.
"He always had football inside him," his cousin Marc Gomis explained.
"Although he was small, he was always tough. He was a lot better than the older kids and he could embarrass them.
"When he was 14 he told me he wanted to become a footballer and had so much determination and hunger that you could see it in his eyes."
INJURY HELL
At the age of 12, Mendy found out that he had a hip infection.
Left untreated, the problem got worse and he soon developed arthritis that left him unable to walk.
Doctors also told him that it was touch-and-go if he was ever going to play football again.
"When I was 15 years old I had a hip operation and they told me I wasn't going to play football again," he revealed at his Real Madrid unveiling Wednesday.
"I was in a wheelchair for a while and I spent between six and seven months in hospital doing rehabilitation so I could walk again. Now I'm at Real Madrid and it's really incredible."
MAKING OF THE MAN
After eight months out Mendy made a miraculous return to the pitch, playing in the PSG academy.
However, the youngster was then faced with a new challenge that could've seen him give up the game completely, especially given that fate didn't seem to be on his side with his career choice thus far.
After originally welcoming him back to their fold, the French giants released Mendy at 17.
He moved to amateur side Mantois in 2012, and then a year later Le Havre, a club with a reputation for producing exciting young talent, took a chance on him.
"After eight months, I went back to training as usual and I was rubbish," Mendy told the Ligue 1 Show.
"I just wasn't up to it, but I worked really hard, and with time I felt myself getting back to a good level, so I left PSG, and eventually signed for Le Havre."
RAPID RISE
Within two years of playing for Le Havre's B side, Mendy's game progressed and first team opportunities started to arrive.
His breakout season came in 2016-17, when he appeared 38 times in all competitions for the Normandy-based club.
Mendy's swashbuckling runs down Le Havre's left-hand side, coupled with an understanding that his defensive duties came first, meant he was named best full-back in Ligue 2.
That alerted Lyon, who paid just £4.5m for the talent, who had rejected the advances of Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid at the time to move to the Ligue 1 team.
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In all competitions, Mendy played 79 times for Les Gones, catching the eye in two games against Manchester City in the Champions League last season.
He'll be vying for the left-back spot with seasoned campaigner Marcelo next season, who has made that position his own for the past 12 years.
But after all the hardship he's been through, there's no doubt Mendy will relish that challenge at the Bernabeu.
