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Eddie Chikamhi
Senior Sports Reporter
WARRIORS goalkeeper Martin Mapisa says the signing of Senegalese goalkeeper Edouard Mendy by English Premiership football giants Chelsea could open the doors for more black goalkeepers of African descent to play in Europe’s big leagues.

Mendy completed his move to Chelsea from French League 1 side Rennes on a five-year deal worth £22 million last week.

The Senegalese international is now set to compete with Kepa Arrizabalaga and Willy Caballero for a starting spot between the posts at the Stamford Bridge.

Mapisa, who plies his trade in Spain for third tier side Zamora FC, said the 28-year-old Senegal national team goalkeeper defied popular perception that blacks were not good enough to fill the “sensitive” position for the big clubs in the top European leagues.

“I think we have some really talented black goalkeepers everywhere. But it all depends with the leagues they are playing in. For example, in France, I have seen many black goalkeepers in both Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 but in England it’s very rare.

“I don’t have a proper explanation for that. Maybe it’s because there are more black professionals in France and the system also believes in them.

“But in life there is something called opportunity. Sometimes it comes once in your lifetime and when it comes it must find you prepared and you must grab it with both hands.

“I think this is what happened with Mendy. It’s a good chance for him to showcase his talent. If he performs well, who knows? It might open the doors for more black goalkeepers to play in England,” said Mapisa.

Mapisa will play the Spanish third-tier, the Segunda Division B, next season, after his club Zamora CF won the promotion last season.

In just under three years, Mapisa has moved four divisions up towards the Spanish La Liga. He first arrived in Spain in 2018 and joined that country’s seventh-tier club CD Almunecar.

But the Aces Youth Soccer Academy alumni passed through Velez FC in the fourth tier and is now at Zamora FC. He is looking beyond Zamora’s recent promotion.

He made only three appearances since his arrival there and is expected to remain an understudy to first-choice goalkeeper, Jon Villanueva, in the coming campaign. Mapisa was part of the Zamora FC squad that concluded a week-long training camp ahead of the start of their league on October 16.

“Generally black players work very hard wherever they go. I have been in Spain for a few years (now) and I played for different clubs in different divisions. When I was recruited, I signed for a seventh tier side. I didn’t think I would get the opportunities but in life nothing is impossible.

“If I keep working hard, in two or three years, I believe I may see myself playing in the La Liga or any of the big leagues in Europe. It’s a process. Commitment, discipline and hard work will bring results.”

Mapisa draws a lot of pride and confidence from Mendy’s move. Although born in France, Mendy opted to represent Senegal — the country of birth of his mother — at international level and has seven caps for the West African country.

He began his career at AS Cherbourg in the Championnat National, the third tier of French football, and remained with the Normandy-based club until 2014.

Following a brief spell at Marseille B without making an appearance, the tall goalkeeper began to move up the footballing pyramid in 2016 by joining Reims and quickly established himself as the first-choice between the sticks.

His impressive and consistent performances resulted in him lifting the first silverware of his career when Reims captured the French Ligue 2 title in 2018 and conceded just 24 goals that term, the lowest in the league.

After three years at Reims, Mendy moved on and joined Rennes ahead of the 2019/20 season. In his first campaign at Roazhon Park, the 6ft 5in goalie kept 13 clean sheets and conceded just 31 goals in 33 games before the season was ended prematurely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

He helped Rennes qualify for the Champions League for the first time last season, with the French club finishing third in Ligue 1. Mendy has European club competition experience under his belt already, having featured in four Europa League games last term.

There have been a few other black goalkeepers that have played in the top European leagues and demonstrated their competence as was the case with DRC-born Steve Mandanda, who chose to represent France.

Mandanda spent most of his professional career with Marseille, making over 500 appearances across all competitions, and was voted Ligue 1 Goalkeeper of the Year five times.

Since his debut in 2008, Mandanda has represented France at five international tournaments that include three UEFA European Championships and two FIFA World Cups, winning the last of those.

Cameroon’s Carlos Kameni is a respected veteran of the Spanish football where he made over 330 La Liga appearances across 13 seasons with Espanyol and Málaga.

But compatriot Thomas N’Kono was one of the first African goalkeepers to make a global name for himself and the continent. Nkono signed for Spanish club Espanyol after the 1982 World Cup.

He would go on to make over 300 competitive appearances for the Barcelona-based side across eight years of competitive play, helping them reach the UEFA Cup final for the first time ever in 1988.

Another Cameroonian, Jacques Songo’o, who is now the Indomitable Lions’ goalkeepers coach, took his talents to Europe in 1989 when he joined French clubs Toulon and then Metz in 1993. He appeared in over 100 matches for the French club, and in 1996, he won the Coupe de la Ligue and was recognized as the African goalkeeper of the year.

He helped Deportivo La Coruna to the first La Liga title in its history in 2000, four years after joining the side.

Among the pioneers was Joseph-Antioine Bell who joined France’s Olympique Marseille in 1985 in what turned out to be the start of an excellent to a trophy-deprived nine-year stint in France.

After departing Marseille in 1988, Bell played for Toulon, Bordeaux and finally Saint-Étienne. He made 30 or more league appearances in eight of the nine seasons he spent in France.

Despite the successes, black goalkeepers are still viewed as “flaky, erratic, error-prone, mentally and temperamentally weak” in some European circles. Former Zimbabwe goalkeeper Brenna Msiska believes European clubs still don’t trust black goalkeepers because of wrong beliefs about the Africans.

“I think the goalkeeper is a sensitive position which needs careful selection. You don’t just recruit for the sake of it. So it’s natural that in Europe they trust their own more than they do foreigners.

“Many clubs overseas, for a start, have a bias for goalkeepers with a bigger frame, on top of all the attributes of a good goalkeeper. You will see that many Africans are not that big.

“Still, here in Zimbabwe, we had excellent goalkeepers like Japhet M’parutsa. He was short but would work very hard to improve his athleticism and agility.

“So if you are a black man from Africa and you are taken into the European system, it means there is something special that they have seen in you. So you have to perform and show that you are that good.

“We have the talent. Probably one of the reasons why some failed to make it to the top is that they don’t have faith in themselves,” said Msiska.

Among the black African goalkeepers, there were some who were stalked by controversy and rejection. Ghana’s Richard Kingson will forever feel bad with the way he was once treated in the English Premiership.

After leaving his home country Ghana, he played for several clubs in Turkey, for Hammarby in Sweden, and in England for Birmingham City, Wigan Athletic and Blackpool, who released him at the end of the 2010–11 season.

Kingson made his debut for Birmingham in August 2007 in a League Cup third round tie against Hereford United. He played once in the Premier League, a 2–0 defeat to Portsmouth in caretaker manager Eric Black’s only game in charge.

At the end of the season, co-owner David Sullivan blamed the club’s relegation on the quality of previous manager Steve Bruce’s signings, branding Kingson a “complete waste of space”. Despite the uneven playing field, former Dynamos goalkeeper Tichaona Diya encouraged aspiring young goalkeepers to keep focused towards their goal.

“For a start, the goalkeeper is not a place holder. It’s one key position on the field of play that can win or lose you games. So the goalkeeper should always be exceptionally talented.

“Mendy’s move should act as a big motivation to all the aspiring young goalkeepers on the continent. It’s usually not easy for the goalkeeper to break to the European leagues compared to the infield player.

“So I always tell the guys that I work with that nothing in life is impossible. I ask them to focus on working on what people say is the impossible because I believe the glass ceiling can always be broken.

“Work hard and always open yourself up to learn new things,” said Diya.