Benjamin Mendy: From Grace to Grass and Back

Nearly five years ago, Benjamin Mendy’s wildest dreams had come true. Just a few days before his 24th birthday, he had reached the pinnacle of world football, achieving what every player aspires to accomplish.

Mendy, who’d risen from humble beginnings in the Parisian suburbs, lifted the World Cup trophy as part of a star-studded French squad alongside the likes of Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe. Weeks earlier, he’d won the Premier League with Manchester City in his first season at the club, after signing for £50m.

It appeared to be the astonishing first chapter in a career which would continue to bring reward and acclaim as part of a marauding City team hunting European glory – and a French squad looking to further dominate world football.

He seemed to have it all – a £4.8m Cheshire mansion, complete with swimming pool and cinema room; a £100,000-a-week salary; and a playboy lifestyle to boot. But in those intervening years, Mendy’s world has come crashing down around him.

Before the time the next World Cup in Qatar came around, Mendy was in prison, earning just £4 a day to feed himself. Despite being cleared following two crown court trials, Mendy’s reputation lies in tatters and his future in professional football looks uncertain.

Mendy was a jovial figure at his trial. He spent months in the imposing surroundings of Chester Crown Court within the Castle complex in the historic Roman city.

His outward emotions did not portray any indication of just how high the stakes were for him. Making his way inside the Grade I-listed building, past the glare of the photographers and cameramen, he was happy to share a joke with court security staff, make score predictions for football games in the world he once occupied, or place his lunch order at the canteen.

In court, he listened intently, showing no emotion as his accusers laid bare the suffering they claimed he had subjected them to. But when the verdicts came in, his emotion was on show for all to see. Mendy, who turns 29 on Monday, broke down in the dock, wept and hugged his supporters after being told he was a free man.

But it is an incredible downfall for a man who not so long ago had the world at his feet. A career at the highest level of world football was not written in the stars for Benjamin Mendy. The youngest of five children, his parents emigrated to France from their native Senegal before he was born.

Settling in Paris, his parents both worked and strived to put food on the table, living a humble existence. Mendy didn’t excel at school academically but quickly found a passion with a ball at his feet.

Aged 12, he began to realise that sport might provide a career for him, and his route to the top began. The following year, aged just 13, Mendy left home and joined a residential football academy in Le Havre, in northern France.

He only saw his parents two or three times a year, with Le Havre being a two-hour drive away from their home in the French capital. But that dedication and sacrifice paid off when Mendy signed a professional contract for Ligue 2 side Le Havre, France’s oldest professional club, aged 16.

A left-footed defender, Mendy soon became a regular in the first team. He began to notice his life changing as he earned more money. At first he lived in an apartment with his older brother, who took a close interest in his affairs and sought to keep him on the straight and narrow. A move to Marseille, one of French football’s biggest clubs, followed.

During a mixed period at the 1993 Champions League winners, at one stage a TV pundit said he would ‘eat a rat’ if Mendy made it to the French national team, after questioning his performance.

But a spell under the direction of former Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa saw Mendy return to form and ultimately earn him a move to Ligue 1 rivals AS Monaco.

It was during that period in Monaco when Mendy first really began to enjoy the trappings of wealth. He was able to employ a chef, a cleaner, a physio and a driver. But everything changed when Manchester City came in for him.

The reported £52m transfer fee made him the most expensive defender of all time at that stage. His brother joined him in England to help him find a house to live in. The £4.8m mansion named The Spinney, in Prestbury, was chosen.

Purchased from former England cricket star Freddie Flintoff, the sprawling six-bedroom property featured a swimming pool, a cinema room, a gym and lavish décor. “I was like wow,” Mendy recalled in court of the first time he set foot in the house, on one of the most exclusive roads in the north west, which had regular patrols from a private security company.

“This is the first time I have seen a big house like this. I just loved it.” Two friends who he originally met at the football academy in Le Havre initially came to live with him, while a live-in chef also moved in.

Mendy noticed he attracted the attention of women while he played for Marseille, but it became ‘10 times more’ when he arrived at City. “Manchester City is one of the best teams in Europe,” he said at his trial. “The way they came to me is not because of the way I look, it is because of football.”

As well as enjoying a positive start to his City career on the pitch, Mendy embraced the party lifestyle. He would go out two or three times a week when he played for City, and acquired an apartment on Chapel Street in Salford.

After nights out in his regular haunt in the VIP lounge at China White nightclub on Deansgate in Manchester city centre, after-parties would carry on into the early hours at Chapel Street or in Prestbury.

Such after-parties were on occasion attended by the likes of his City teammates Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling and Manchester United player Aaron Wan Bissaka, while £100m signing Jack Grealish was at one of the Prestbury after-parties.

“I really enjoyed to be out,” Mendy recalled in court. “I was so happy to be there and excited.” He also fully embraced the sexual appeal that came with being a Premier League footballer, saying it was ‘so easy’ to get sex.

After a positive start to his City career on the pitch, two serious injuries kept him out of Pep Guardiola’s team for many months. Mendy said he sought solace in the party lifestyle. “When I felt happy is when I was drinking and making parties,” he said at his first trial.

Mendy was first quizzed in November 2020 over rape allegations.

Before it was revealed that he was being investigated by police, it was disclosed that Manchester City had launched a probe after he held a New Year’s Eve party which breached Covid regulations.

After being charged with rape, City suspended their player and stopped paying his wages. It was during that period when Mendy was to experience his biggest downfall.

For more than four months – from August last year to January – Mendy was locked up, remanded in prison.

His playboy lifestyle, £4.8m mansion and £100,000-a-week salary never felt so far away. Rather than just being able to splash the cash on whatever he wanted, Mendy had just a few pounds to spend on himself. “I was earning like £4 every day, to spend it in the canteen to buy some food,” he said in court.

“It is the first time I was really careful. The life I had before, everything I wanted to have, I just buy it.” He would later pinpoint that as the moment when he claimed to have experienced a Damascene conversion.

“When I went there I was alone, you sit down all day and the only thing you can do is think,” he said at his first trial. “The way I was sleeping with different women, the way I was going out.”

At first, he was held at the category B Altcourse prison in Merseyside. Mendy reportedly had a ‘meltdown’ after being locked up, believing he was being housed in a VIP wing of the jail. It was reported that he misunderstood what he’d been told, and was actually being sent to the VP area, where vulnerable prisoners are kept away from the main prison population.

Mendy was later transferred to the maximum security HMP Manchester, better known as Strangeways. The footballer was reportedly moved to the category A jail for his own safety, spending last Christmas inside the notorious prison which has housed criminals including Harold Shipman and Dale Cregan.

Ahead of his trial, he was released on bail and began to prepare his case with his legal team, led by Eleanor Laws KC, a high profile barrister who has previously represented Johnny Depp at his UK libel trial. In another reality, as the jury deliberated on Mendy’s case at the first trial, which ran from August last year to January, he could have been in Qatar with his French teammates aiming for another shot at World Cup glory.

He was acquitted of the majority of counts alleged against him. After a five-month trial, he unanimously found not guilty of six counts of rape, allegations concerning four women, and a further count of sexual assault against a fifth woman. He had already been acquitted of raping a sixth woman on the judge’s direction during the trial.

Mendy following his trial outside Chester Crown Court (Image: PA)

The jury could not agree on a further two counts, of rape and attempted rape concerning two women.

Mendy’s legal team tried to get the case thrown out ahead of the second trial, arguing he couldn’t get a fair trial due to the media coverage generated by the first case.

They also claimed one of his accusers’ credibility was ‘shot through’ after the first jury acquitted Mendy of two of three rape allegations she had made, but failed to agree on the third.

But the judge disagreed and Mendy faced a second trial.

After a two week re-trial, Mendy was also found not guilty on the remaining two counts.

Whether the not guilty verdicts create a path for his re-entry into the world of professional football remains to be seen.

But he left court last Friday afternoon a free man.

‘Rebuilding his life’

Following the hearing, Jenny Wiltshire, head of serious and general crime at Hickman & Rose said: “Benjamin Mendy would like to thank the members of the jury for focussing on the evidence in this trial, rather than on the rumour and innuendo that have followed this case from the outset.

“This is the second time that Mr Mendy has been tried and found not guilty by a jury. He is delighted that both juries reached the correct verdicts.

“It has been almost three years since the police started investigating this matter. Mr Mendy has tried to remain strong but the process has, inevitably had a serious impact on him.

“He thanks everyone who has supported him throughout this ordeal and now asks for privacy so he can begin rebuilding his life.”

Mendy has however sign for Ligue 1 side, Lorient, five days after being acquitted.