Eliezer Mayenda: ‘With patience, we can do something here at Sunderland’

The teenager pauses and considers his answer to the final question.

We are in the sunlit foyer of Sunderland’s training ground and Eliezer Mayenda is being quizzed on the end of a personal era. At 19, he has lived in three countries, played in four leagues and can speak five languages, three of them fluently. But he is a teenager no more. On May 8, Mayenda turns 20. He has just been asked for his ideal birthday present.

He lingers over a reply, then says softly in English, his third language: “Promotion. Just get promotion. That would be a good gift.”

Along with Chris Rigg, Jobe Bellingham and 23-year-old captain Dan Neil, Mayenda has become one of the faces of this young Sunderland. On Friday night, they are at Coventry City for the first leg of the Championship play-off semi-final. Last Saturday, Sunderland’s starting XI had an average age of 23.5, Coventry’s was 26.9. We will see if that shows.

Promotion would mean Premier League football next season, another new experience for Mayenda. First, however, are Coventry, then a possible play-off final at Wembley, a stadium Mayenda has not been to.

Considering Sunderland have scored one goal in their last six matches, five of which have been lost, confidence on Wearside of a trip to Wembley has diminished. It has been a curious end to an interesting season — Sunderland secured their play-off position a month ago in the first of those six games, a 0-0 draw at Norwich City.

The one goal they have scored came from Mayenda and it has been voted the club’s goal of the season, a 70-yard run through various Bristol City players at Ashton Gate.

Mayenda calls it his “best goal” as it reveals his technique, speed and thrust, but his favourite goal is the close-range header at Sheffield Wednesday at the end of February. It was his second of the night and it won the game.

“I don’t know if I can explain why exactly,” Mayenda says, “but it was a different game, tough, 1-1, second half. And maybe because our supporters were crazy at this game. The atmosphere was incredible. A header. Everything.”

Mayenda’s goals that night at Hillsborough were two of eight in his first full season at the Stadium of Light. That tally, his energy and Mayenda’s willingness to play on the wing when he wants to be a centre-forward have endeared him to Sunderland supporters. He has his own, convoluted, chant.

This time last year, Mayenda was on loan in Scotland with Hibernian and barely getting a kick, having joined Sunderland from Sochaux in 2023. His progress since has been a vindication of a quality we might not expect to hear championed by a teenager: patience.

“Last season was my first season and when I started training with my new team-mates I said to my dad, ‘We’ve a good a team here, we just need patience’,” Mayenda says. “If we get patience, we can do something here, because these are good young players. I said it to supporters last season, ‘Patience. Let the players work, let the players work. The results will come’.”

Given Sunderland trailed in 16th in the Championship last May and had no permanent manager, fans were entitled to be impatient. But the appointment of head coach Regis Le Bris last June brought structure and calm and nine victories in the first 12 league games of the season, form that sows patience.

Mayenda was a central part of that. He was selected up front in the opening game at Cardiff City and then for the first home game against Wednesday. He scored two against them that day, too. It gave a hint of what Sunderland might be this season — and Mayenda.

“When you play in the Stadium of Light, it’s completely different,” he says. “The Stadium of Light is the best in the league.

“The first home game, the team was strong, we were excited and I was really confident. The fans showed me love and maybe that’s why I scored two goals. My family was in the stadium. It was great, my first goals for Sunderland. I can’t describe this moment. Incredible.”

Le Bris has placed his faith in Mayenda (Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)

Mayenda’s young life and career began in Zaragoza in northern Spain.

His mother, Eugenie, is Spanish-Togolese, his father Congolese. Mayenda played street football, then joined local club Ebro, but at nine years old, Mayenda’s father, Fulgence, found work in Paris and the family departed for a new country.

“That was difficult — all I had was ‘bonjour’ when I got there,” Mayenda says. “I was a young kid, but after one or two years, I started to speak a little French. You need to adapt: new country, new school, new friends. It’s easier when you’re younger. Playing football helped because I don’t like to speak so much.”

As he acquired French — Mayenda can also speak some of both his parents’ native languages — he was spotted at 12 playing in a summer tournament in Paris by a scout from second-tier Sochaux. The club offered a five-year contract and, two years later, Mayenda was moving again, this time 400 kilometres (250 miles) south-east to Sochaux’s academy, a residential facility.

“I moved when I was 14,” he says. “In France, you can stay in an academy at that age. I was alone in Sochaux, other boys there, but still difficult. It’s about adaptation, especially when you’re a young kid. It’s really, really difficult and I remember my mum crying every day. My dad was like: ‘I don’t care’ — he’s a man. He did care.”

At 16, Mayenda had a professional contract and, in December 2021, a first-team debut against Nantes. “Big stress. I was training with the first team the week before, but I couldn’t believe I’d be in the team for this game — Nantes is a big club. I thought, ‘We need experience’. So I had a big stress, but a good stress.”

𝘕𝘰𝘮 : Eliezer Mayenda
𝘗𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦 : Attaquant
𝘈𝘨𝘦 : 16 ans
𝘗𝘪𝘦𝘥 : Gauche
𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦́ : 🇪🇸#MadeInSeloncourt pic.twitter.com/xv5BbNdYEf

— FC Sochaux-Montbéliard (@FCSM_officiel) February 2, 2022

Off the pitch, though, Sochaux were changing owner and looked increasingly distressed financially. In 2023, they were compulsorily relegated to the third division, where they remain. As Mayenda was now more than a young boy — he was an asset who had played for Spain’s under-17s — he was sold to help balance the books.

Sunderland, by then majority-owned by young French-Swiss businessman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, stepped in.

“My intention was to stay in Sochaux,” Mayenda says. “I’d played one season and I wanted to play a second season there. It was complicated. The club president told me: ‘Eli, we don’t have a choice, you have to go if we receive a good offer’. Sochaux were waiting for some clubs like Lyon, Marseille, Paris Saint-Germain, then I remember the Sunderland president Kyril, he called.

“When I saw the name Sunderland, I said to my dad that I didn’t want to go to the French First Division, I want to go to Sunderland.”

Why?

“It was just my feeling, I can’t tell you why exactly, it was just a natural connection. Sunderland was special. I knew it was historic in England, it had been in the Premier League and everyone has seen the documentary on Netflix. When Kyril called Sochaux, my dad agreed with me.”

Louis-Dreyfus and Sunderland’s head of player recruitment, Stuart Harvey, were waiting for Mayenda at the airport — “Stuart and Kyril, a big welcome.”

Mayenda in full flight for Sunderland against Cardiff City (MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

He was driven to the training ground where he met Rigg and others. “I spoke a little bit with him but my English at that moment was really bad.”

No more. Mayenda has worked hard on his English and has been able to understand Le Bris’ request to play on the wing midway through the season when Romaine Mundle was injured, which followed the sale of Jack Clarke.

“I did well,” he says, “but it’s not my natural position. I feel more comfortable when I play No 9. Ninety per cent of games, I played No 9 when I was younger.

“When I was a kid, I liked Fernando Torres, Ronaldo — the Brazilian. He was the best striker. I saw videos, my father talked about him. I saw Torres playing on TV, David Villa too. I’m Spanish. I remember the 2010 World Cup, just the final. I remember (Andres) Iniesta scoring. When I was younger playing FIFA with my brother, I was Fernando Torres. Rivaldo was good, too. I like him, sometimes I try to do things like Rivaldo.”

In March, Mayenda was called up by Spain Under-21s. He made his debut in a friendly against the Czech Republic as a replacement for Barcelona’s Fermin Lopez. There was a second appearance against Germany.

Mayenda has played a key role in Sunderland’s impressive season (George Wood/Getty Images)

“For me and my family, it was incredible, a good step in my career. I was training for one week with really good players from Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Valencia, a good experience.

“Fermin plays in Barcelona, he plays in the Champions League. That’s why I say it’s a good experience for me because I can learn from these players and especially from Fermin. I have a good relationship with him. Sometimes he sends me messages after watching Sunderland.

“It’s about opportunities. Xavi gave Fermin opportunities and he got stronger and stronger. Same for me here.”

Spain will play in the European Under-21 Championship in Slovakia in June. Mayenda hopes to be in the squad. If given a chance in the play-offs, taking one would aid his cause.

It is something Le Bris mentioned on Wednesday.

“He got an unexpected opportunity,” Le Bris said of Mayenda. “It’s rare when you work with your lineup at the start of the season and say: ‘This player will play 25 games, we can build a pathway for him’.

“More often, a player is in the squad but not really a starter. Then there is an injury and a player will seize this opportunity, because he is connected. He will say: ‘I’m here and I will show you’. The best players in the world are like that and Eli showed this quality. Even he didn’t expect this season.

“Now it’s a question of consistency.”

Whether he selects Mayenda or Wilson Isidor up front is the big debate. “He is in a good place,” Le Bris added of Mayenda. “We forget how young he is, absolutely.”

The candles on the cake on Thursday will be a reminder to all.

(Top photo: Richard Sellers/PA Images via Getty Images)

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