Real Madrid’s Ferland Mendy linked with a move to Saudi Arabia

In front of you stands a man with his arms out and his palms facing upwards. In one hand he holds a green tablet, in the other, a red and blue striped tablet. You are a professional footballer, and your choice is simple yet limited: time to decide.

It seems that every footballer across Europe is being propositioned by a Laurence Fishburne/Morpheus impersonator, handing out two tablets that result in one of a binary set of options: MLS or Saudi Arabia.

Ferland Mendy, it seems, has eaten the green tablet, and will more than likely be on his way to sign with one of the country’s biggest clubs and become the next name in a 3-dimensional list that is growing all sides and expanding at an ever-increasing rate of acceleration. The Saudi Arabian universe, given how things are going, might actually out-expand the other one, the OG universe.

Mendy has had a long injury record at Madrid

Mendy has amassed almost 100 appearances for Real Madrid, arguably the biggest club in the world, but I couldn’t tell you about one of them. The defender has never, despite Real Madrid’s seemingly-helpful-for-him lack of a left-back, managed to nail down his place as the undisputed starter. Marcelo’s swan song at Los Blancos ended with plenty of people asking him to be dropped due to defensive frailties, but seldom was the word Mendy being screamed as a starting option.

Things are, it must be said, partly not his fault. In fact, the huge cloud over what Mendy has experienced at Madrid is caused by injury issues, and he’s had plenty. The 28-year-old played just over 20 times for Real Madrid last season and was sidelined for 92 days, or 23 games in total. And when he was fit, wonderboy Eduardo Camavinga was busy making the left-sided role his own as some kind of hybrid midfielder/full-back. Ancelotti stuck octopus arms on a winged horse, but it worked.

Camavinga and Fran García are Mendy’s competition

Camavinga played 17 games as a left-back last season for Madrid, and while he did not score or assist much, his defensive solidity was clear to see, as well as an innate knowledge of when and how to attack alongside Vinicius, something that Mendy, during his time in Spain, has never quite figured out.

The arrival of Fran García from Rayo Vallecano puts Mendy’s position at an even greater risk. The Spaniard has returned to the club where he graduated as a first-team player in Spain and after a pair of solid seasons at Rayo under the watchful yet exciting eye of then-boss Andoni Iraola, García made a name for himself as one of LaLiga’s most entertaining wide men.

Mendy has a choice to make: stay at Madrid and fight, hoping injury does not trip up his progress again, or seek (sandy) pastures new.