Season 1 of the Hero Indian Super League had its fair share of jaw-dropping moments. Chennaiyin FC’s Bernard Mendy’s match-winning acrobatic bicycle kick against Kerala Blasters at Chennai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was one of them.Mendy made 13 appearances for Chennaiyin FC last year, making important contributions in defence while also making his presence felt in the attacking third. Ahead of the upcoming edition of the league, the constant over-lapping threat from right-back spoke to indiansuperleague.com and shared his thoughts. “I am very happy, happy to come back for ISL 2 to see my second family, my Indian brothers. I’m very happy and very excited to come back to Chennai,” Mendy said.34-year-old Mendy began his career at the youth set-up of Caen in France. After making his breakthrough in the 1998-99 season, the pacy wingback put in some stellar performances for Caen, and that earned him a move to French giants Paris Saint-Germain in 2000. After a year-long loan spell at Bolton Wanderers in 2002-03, Mendy would go on to be an integral part of the PSG, helping the Parisians capture the Coupe de France twice in 2004 and 2006 and Coupe de la Ligue in 2008. Mendy has also had a taste of success on the international stage and has won the Under-18 European Championship in 2000.After the PSG Stint, Mendy joined newly-promoted Hull City at the start of the 2008-09 campaign, where he made the right-back slot his own, courtesy of his constant attacking threat coupled with defensive solidity.When asked about his thoughts on Chennaiyin FC’s pre-season, the former French international said, “We played two games, one game we win [vs Ortana], so good game; [one] game we lose [vs Gualdo Casacastalda), but I think the whole training is going well and we are working hard to be ready for our first game at home.”Having topped the group stages and narrowly missing out on the finals last year, free-scoring Chennai will be looking to go all the way this time. Quizzed on what we can expect to see from last year’s top-scoring team, Mendy said: “I expect everybody to fight this year and win ISL 2.”
