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John Mensah major internatinoal appearance was for the
2001 FIFA World Youth Championship in Argentina, where
Ghana finished as runners-up to the host nation in a
thrilling tournament.
He moved to French Ligue 1 Club Rennes on loan after
having played in Italy for most of his career, for clubs
including Genoa, Modena, Bologna and Cremonese, at the
behest of their former player Philippe Redon, who
brought him to fill the gap in defence caused by an
injury to another African, the Moroccan Abdeslam Ouaddou.
The move to Rennes breathed new life into the Ghanaian’s
play, with his uncompromising style earning him a
reputation in France as one of Ligue 1’s best defenders
and Mensah now looks like holding on to the position for
years to come.
Now check this out: Stade Rennais website wrote an
interesting article about John Mensah impact on his new
team since his acquisition. It said - The summary from
11 February 2006 to 28 September 2006 is very
impressive: 18 games: 12 wins, 5 draws, 1 defeat. 12
conceded goals, 4 of them when Mensah was not on the
field. Rennes conceded 0.66 goals per game with Mensah.
Without Mensah Rennes had 6 games, 0 wins, 1 draw and
five losses. 13 goals were conceded, making 2.66 per
game. |
John
Mensah Lyon,
Ghana - Regarded as one of the best African
defenders in football John Mensah stars Olympique
Lyonnais (Lyon) of French Ligue 1 and the Ghana Black
Stars. Ghanaians love to call John "The Rock of
Gibraltar" because of his immense stregth.
He
was also linked with a possible move to Wigan Athletic. An
enquiry from Wigan Athletic about a possible transfer for
the Ghanaian was welcomed by Stade Rennais with club
assistant coach Philippe Redon commenting that it would take
at least £7,000,000 to prize ‘Rock of Gibraltar’ away from
the club