After being one of the biggest names to miss the cut, Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy has spoken out.
The Senegal international has had a fantastic start to his career at Stamford Bridge, winning the 2021 Champions League and assisting the Blues to a Premier League top-four finish.
His performance in Saturday’s win over Brentford, in which he produced a slew of saves to put his team’s west London rivals at bay, has only added to the controversy around the omission.
Mendy has broken his silence on the topic after being omitted off a list that includes five of his Chelsea teammates, according to Mirror Uk.
Mendy’s exclusion from the list has been criticized by a number of players, including his international teammate Sadio Mane.
The decision was “inadmissible" and “regrettable," according to Mane, who was a nominee for the prize un 2019 and 2021.
Mendy’s colleagues Thiago Silva and Antonio Rudiger have also expressed their surprise, with Rudiger asking: “Someone explain why he’s not nominated for the Ballon d’Or” after Saturday’s win?”
Mendy, on the other hand, has taken a more measured approach to being left off a list that only includes one goalkeeper.
“Do I think it’s an injustice? No, I wouldn’t use that word,” Mendy told Canal+, as translated by Sport Witness.
“It’s something that motivates me to go forward, to work and be performant at club level and with my country, and as I said after the game with the national team, it’s the journalists’ freedom of vote and expression, and they vote honourably and conscientiously.”
Mendy revealed he received a lot of messages of support after the list of 30 was revealed, adding that the affection from friends and strangers alike “really touched me to a point I wasn’t expecting”.
The post “‘I’m really touched’, Chelsea’s Mendy breaks silence on Ballon d’Or snub" first appeared on Punchng.