Last update 11 November, 2020 by Alberto Llopis
The story of Diong Mendy is another one of those that football leaves us. That of a talented and very promising footballer in his youth stage but later, due to circumstances' x’ that are, becomes one of those for star players who were and they end up staying on the road. This is the case of this former soccer player born in 1988 and Senegal.
Diong Mendy, Messi's partner in the Barça quarry
He came to Spain with his family in the year 2000 and entered La Masía in 2002 where he coincided with a certain Leo Messi, what 2 years later he was going to debut in the first team. They made good friends as Mendy himself has told in different media. And not only outside the field but also inside it where Messi did mischief with the ball and Diong Mendy I plugged them in from all sides. Nothing more and nothing less than 97 goals came to make a season. They were 2 most promising forwards in his category but fate brought him different cards.
While Leo Messi debuted in 2004 with the first team of Barcelona, Mendy lost his father that same year, which was a hard emotional blow for a boy who at that time, had only 17 years. His performance was no longer going to be the same.
From future star to boxing coach
In 2006 He left the youth A of Barça towards Albacete in the form of a loan and his career was gradually fading. He played his last year as a youth in Real Murcia and already in an amateur stage between the third division and the preferred one of the Valencia Community and the Murcia region in teams such as the Elche subsidiary, the Horadada, the Pinatar, the Onda or the Jumilla. He also went through the Cádiz subsidiary and had an experience in the Armenian first division.
in the season 2014-15 decided to hang up his boots and exchange them for boxing gloves. Diong Mendy He is now dedicated to giving boxing classes in Murcia and those times when he stood out as one of the great pearls of the Barça quarry are long gone.