Footballers Ferland and Edouard Mendy have spoken out after several media outlets in France and the UK mistakenly used their images when reporting on Manchester City’s Benjamin Mendy.
The Man City and France defender is currently remand at HMP Altcourse, Liverpool and awaiting trial on six counts of rape and one of sexual assault.
The 27-year-old was charged in August, with the offences that are said to have taken place between October 2020 and August 2021. He has since been charged on 16th November with two more counts of rape.
However, despite winning the World Cup with France as well as the Premier League for City, who he has played for since 2017 and Ligue 1 with Monaco, some publications have struggled to tell him apart with some of his namesakes in the game.
Both Chelsea’s Senegalese goalkeeper, Edouard Mendy and Real Madrid’s French defender, Ferland Mendy, none of whom are related, had their images included in several reports on the Benjamin Mendy story despite the two clearly wearing different kits to the ones that the Man City player usually wears.
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In a post on his Instagram stories Edouard Mendy included four screenshots from French and English language outlets that wrongly used pictures of him and his Real Madrid counterpart, adding: “Sad to see that in 2021, in France as well as in England, for some, black people have neither first names nor distinct faces.
“These ‘mistakes’ of photos appear anecdotal but actually they are quite the opposite, they are highly symbolic. It’s not that complicated to differentiate two faces, especially when the football jersey is of valuable help!”
Edouard Mendy and Ferland Mendy criticising media outlets for illustrating articles about Benjamin Mendy using pictures of them: pic.twitter.com/xbnIfqrWcn
— Get French Football News (@GFFN) November 17, 2021
Ferland Mendy shared a screengrab of Edouard’s post on his Twitter and thanked the Chelsea player for raising awareness on the issue. The 26-year-old also added: “We’re in 2021. Stop! It will take time but in the end you’ll respect us. Whether you like it or not.”
Merci Edouard Mendy! Nous sommes en 2021 😔😔😔!
— Ferland Mendy (@ferland_mendy) November 17, 2021
STOP 💪🏿🛑✋🏿
Ça prendra du temps mais vous allez finir par nous respecter! Que vous le vouliez ou non 😡😡😡! pic.twitter.com/sg52f2MbyB
Benjamin Mendy has been suspended by Manchester City until further notice. A trial date has been set for January 2022.
