Nathaniel Mendez-Laing on coming through at Wolves, career challenges and the Premier League

Only thing was, in winning that man-of-the-match accolade, and heading up to the sponsors’ lounge to receive his prize, he was told that would not be possible.

Because he was only 17 years and 132 days old, and the award was a bottle of champagne!

This was August 2009, and Wolves were playing a Carling Cup tie against Swindon a few games into their Premier League return under Mick McCarthy.

Drafted into the starting line-up through injuries, Mendez-Laing admits there were plenty of nerves. But as they eased, he was able to set about playing his normal game. Bursting down the right wing, taking players on, and getting crosses into the box.

“I was used to training with the first team from time to time but I remember being told I was starting and being in shock,” Mendez-Laing recalls. “I was very nervous but can still vividly recall walking on the pitch and just feeling those nerves leave me.

“I managed to relax, and felt like I was back playing in the under-18s, taking defenders on and feeling comfortable and confident.

“Playing with freedom is something I have done throughout my career, and that’s what I tried to do, rather than the times I had trained with the first team and had held back a bit, just thinking about not losing the ball.

“The older pros who were around at the time really helped me – people like Carl Ikeme, someone I have always looked up to and is like a big brother to me.

“My parents and other family were there and then I was given the man-of-the-match award and had to go up and do an interview, although I couldn’t take the champagne because I wasn’t 18!

“It’s such a great memory, and as I’m talking to you now, I’ve got the shirt framed right in front of me… number 44.”

A few days before and after that Swindon fixture Wolves played in the Premier League, away at Manchester City and home to Hull.   

But Mendez-Laing never made it into a Premier League matchday squad, and was also disappointed not to make the travelling party for the next round of the Carling Cup away at Manchester United.

He did, however, make it to the Premier League eventually. It was nine years later, with Cardiff, that he made his top-flight bow against Bournemouth, and went on to deliver a positive impact with 20 appearances and four goals, some of them particularly notable.  

That proved another memorable step on a footballing journey still going strong, with 33-year-old Mendez Laing currently on the recovery trail after hamstring surgery in the hope of being back for the final weeks of a season in which current club MK Dons are aiming for promotion.

As mentioned, there have been plenty of obstacles and difficulties along the way, including being banned from football for the use of recreational drugs. And yet, with the sort of character, resilience and single-mindedness which becomes a prerequisite for any player to emerge and reach the level of Mendez-Laing, there is no hiding from mistakes. More a continuing desire and determination to bounce back.

That character and resilience was forged during Mendez-Laing’s formative years in the Second City, growing up with a footballing dream and playing both on Saturdays and Sundays for well-known Holy Name FC in Great Barr.

His parents steered him away from academy football initially, preferring him to play for enjoyment with his friends, until a trial for Birmingham, which fitted the bill as some of those friends were already there.

However, Mendez-Laing wasn’t successful, rejected for a so-called lack of physicality, but not long after he was scouted by Blues once again.

By this time, however, Wolves were also on his trail. Tony Lacey and Les Green, so successful in the recruitment of many young talents during this era, had been impressed. And also impressed Mendez-Laing’s parents to the effect that, while he was insistent on finishing off the season with Holy Name, he then joined the Academy programme based at Aldersley.

“I really enjoyed my time coming through at Wolves,” he reflects. “People like Tony and Les had such an effect on me, also Chris Evans, and the coach John Trollope, and Kevin Thelwell, who would always speak to me about how things were going and what I needed to do.

“I had a few issues at school after I joined Wolves, so I actually came in full-time a bit earlier than the scholarship, and did my schoolwork at the club alongside the football.

“I think that helped me catch up, having come into the academy set-up a few years later than most of the other lads in my year group.

“I’d been a bit behind them to start with – I felt like I’d gone from being a standout in Sunday league to the bottom of the packet – but by the time I got to the scholarship I felt ready.”

Mendez-Laing also burst on to the scene alongside many others when Wolves Academy won the prestigious Gothia Cup tournament in Sweden in the summer of 2009.

A team coached by Thelwell and Mick Halsall won the tournament, beating Brazilian side Cruzeiro on penalties in the final, and Mendez-Laing was the top scorer with five goals.

After that, he and fellow tournament winners James Spray and Zeli Ismail were utilised in a first-team friendly at Walsall, and being on McCarthy’s radar helped Mendez-Laing to that prized senior debut in the cup success – also on penalties – against Swindon.

Sadly, there was to be no follow-up and indeed no further first-team action for Mendez-Laing at Molineux. With the team locked in a seemingly inexorable battle for Premier League survival, it was no place to blood talented youngsters.  

He went out to continue to learn his trade in loan spells with Peterborough, where they were promoted via the League One play-offs, and Sheffield United.

Peterborough tried to sign Mendez-Laing after his initial loan, and he decided to stay at Wolves, but when they came calling again, he decided it was time to go out and prove himself on a regular basis at first-team level.

“The club accepted the bid but said it was up to me, and when it came the second time, I felt it was the right time,” he reflects. “I’d had a few injuries and needed to get out and make my own way in the game, to go and play regularly.

“Wolves were always fighting for survival and had started changing managers – I remember TC (Terry Connor) telling me I was going to be in his plans but a few days later someone else came in.

“There was a lot going on, and I thought it was probably best to go and try and make my name somewhere else.

“I had seen young players like Elliot Bennett leave Wolves and go and build careers, and spoke a lot to lads like Carl (Ikeme) and Lewis Gobern about what I needed to do.

“I always backed myself ability-wise, and even though it was sad to be leaving Wolves, I knew it was time to go.”

Moving away to live on his own for the first time at Peterborough, Mendez-Laing admits he didn’t necessarily live properly and professionally. Another of those vital learning curves.

It probably needed a couple of what can be described as ‘old-school’ managers, those who were direct and honest, to push him back on track, in the forms of Keith Hill at Rochdale and then Neil Warnock at Cardiff.

“I remember having an open and honest chat with Keith, who told me Rochdale wasn’t the fanciest club ever, and wasn’t what I was used to, but if I worked hard, he would get me to where I needed to go,” Mendez-Laing explains. “And I had a great two years there. I think the one season we finished in their highest ever league position in League One, just missing out on the play-offs.

“From there I was literally on my way to join Wigan, and pulling into the Starbucks with my agent, when he said that Neil Warnock wanted to speak to me at Cardiff.

“It was a heck of a detour, a long drive, and that’s when I met Neil – the main man – who is such a great man manager and helped me in so many ways.

“He is someone who did so much for my career and I still talk to him now.”

Mendez-Laing joined Cardiff at the start of the 2017/18 season, initially told by Warnock that he wouldn’t be a regular starter.

And yet, by the end of August, he had been named Championship Player of the Month thanks to notching five goals, including a winner on his return to Molineux which provided the first defeat of Nuno Espirito Santo’s reign.

“That was a good day but was nothing to do with revenge or proving anything,” he explains. “I was going back to a club which I still hold very close to my heart, where I had come through and learnt my trade and had so many friends.

“So, it was more just a good feeling being back at Molineux, with a lot of my mates at the game, and just a really special moment.”

There were more special moments to come. Particularly as with Cardiff, Mendez-Laing finished as runners-up to Nuno’s Wolves to finally achieve another ambition of the Premier League.

Yes, defeat at Bournemouth kicked it off, and yes Cardiff were ultimately relegated, but not without some memorable moments, particularly for Mendez-Laing.

He scored his first Premier League goal away at Arsenal – the team he supports – was on target in a 2-0 win at Brighton and then, most famously of all, grabbed a brace at Old Trafford as Cardiff defeated Manchester United 2-0 on the final day of the season.

It was Cardiff’s first win over United in 65 years.

“I remember the final game of the season when we got promoted,” Mendez-Laing recalls. “There were 10 minutes to go, and me and a couple of the lads were just looking at each other thinking ‘we’ve done it’. Such a surreal feeling.

“Getting to the Premier League was a dream come true, and then the first game at Bournemouth came around and Neil Warnock told us that the players that had got us there deserved their chance to start.

“And then, as an Arsenal fan, I managed to score at the Emirates, and then getting both goals against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

“That’s something, when my kids get older, that I will definitely be able to long back on and show them – a proud moment!”

A year later, however, Mendez-Laing had his contract terminated for a breach of contract which was later revealed to be linked to a ban received for failing a drugs test.

It was a mistake which he both regrets but has not hidden away from. And a sign of his overall attitude and personality is that it was Warnock who was quick to give him another opportunity, at Middlesbrough, before a brief stint at Sheffield Wednesday prior to joining Derby, under now Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior.

It was during three years as a Ram that Mendez-Laing rebuilt his career. Named in the League One team of the season after being an ever present in helping them into the Championship, a sign of his growing responsibilities came with boss Paul Warne handing him the captain’s armband.

And it was Warne who then took Mendez-Laing to MK Dons last summer, where he was very much enjoying his football and had struck six goals in five games prior to his injury not long before Christmas.

“What happened to me at Cardiff is something I’d never be embarrassed about because it’s important to show that one mistake doesn’t define you,” he admits. “I feel like everyone makes different mistakes and I hold my head high with what’s happened in my career and I do take pride in how I have managed to get to where I am.

“I’ve seen it happen before where not every player makes it back, and I will always look in my career as half full rather than half empty with what I have achieved.

“For anyone who has ever gone through similar, or been in a tough situation, it is all about having the character and resilience to come back.”

And that comeback has certainly been bigger than the setback. Not only has Mendez-Laing returned to flourish at club level, but he also secured international recognition with Guatemala, for whom he qualifies through his mother and grandma.

He had represented England at under-16 and under-17 levels before being capped at senior level with Guatemala, where his 19 appearances included a run to the quarter-finals of the 2023 Concacaf Gold Cup in Canada and America.

“It’s been such a great experience, travelling around to play against different countries and learn about different cultures, and to go back to the place where my family was from,” he says. “The big dream was to reach the World Cup, and unfortunately we missed out in the last qualifier and weren’t able to achieve it.

“Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be, but to play international football is something else I am very proud of and glad I got to experience.”

For now, Mendez-Laing is fully focused on matters far closer to home. And that’s not just a busy family life where ‘being a daddy is the best job in the world’.

With MK Dons handily placed in the League Two promotion race, that means working around the clock on his rehabilitation to try and be back for at least the last month to try and help them over the line.

He remains in close touch with many of his former Wolves team-mates. The list of contemporaries who went on to play both at Molineux and elsewhere - Danny Batth, David Davis, Jack Price, Ethan Ebanks-Landell and Sam Winnall to name just five – remains a palpable sign of such a prolific era for Wolves Academy.

Even though Mendez-Laing ultimately had to leave to fulfil his dreams, the power of his formative years, and what Wolves will always mean, has never wavered.

“I came through and learnt my trade at Wolves and they gave me an opportunity, so it’s a club I will always look out for,” he admits. “When some of us get together we will always look back at so many special memories, and Wolves will always hold a special place in my heart.”