A keen student of the game, Eton scholar playing football with Europe’s best
As a King’s Scholar at Eton, Tudor Mendel-Idowu is among the most academically gifted teenagers in Britain, one of about 14 boys a year who are selected after acing exams in eight subjects
www.thetimes.co.uk
As a King’s Scholar at Eton, Tudor Mendel-Idowu is among the most academically gifted teenagers in Britain, one of about 14 boys a year who are selected after acing exams in eight subjects.
Mendel-Idowu, the son of a Nigerian pastor and an NHS manager, has just done A-levels in Latin, Greek and modern history at the boys’ boarding school and has lofty ambitions. He has talked of going into foreign policy or international relations.
But that’s only if his other career doesn’t work out.
For Mendel-Idowu, 18, is also one of the country’s brightest footballing talents, spotted by Chelsea at the age of eight. Last week he left his boyhood club to sign for the Belgian side Anderlecht. He had been due to join the Spanish giants FC Barcelona but a bidding war ensued.
The attacking midfielder has a claim to be Britain’s brainiest footballer. In 2014, aged eight, he took part in Channel 4’s Child Genius competition alongside his 11-year-old sister Hazelle. The competition, overseen by Mensa, required children aged between 7 and 12 to complete tasks to determine their intelligence through logic and reasoning and memory recall.
He was asked questions that would be beyond many adults — such as “What is the measure of the ability for a substance to become magnetised?” — and to recall the order of two packs of randomly shuffled playing cards in less than an hour. Out of 20 entrants Mendel-Idowu finished second — and was captured on camera crying because he had not won. The pictures triggered headlines asking whether it was the “cruellest reality show ever”.
Two years later he won a national competition — the junior language challenge — pipping more than 1,000 other schoolchildren, learning Portuguese, Mandarin and Arabic. After his victory, his father, Tolu, 48, said: “If he puts his mind to anything he goes for it with all of his heart.”
Tudor Mendel-Idowu at Eton
Mendel-Idowu grew up in Wokingham, Berkshire, just 30 miles from Eton, with his father, his mother, Gold, 45, and two sisters. He is said to have been encouraged to develop his intellect from a young age. He ate meals surrounded by encyclopaedias and Post-it notes and has said he realised at the age of seven that he had an “academic gift”. But at the same time he was nurturing a precocious talent for football.
Although he did not make an appearance for Chelsea’s first team, he played for the youth side and for England at under-15 and under-17 level. Mendel-Idowu scored 13 goals and provided six assists in 35 appearances for Chelsea’s under-18s last season.
His genes go some way to explaining his success in both the academic and sporting worlds. His maternal grandfather, John Adeleye-Abai, played international football for Nigeria. His paternal grandfather, Fola Kayode Mendel-Idowu, was an academic specialising in bio-aeronautics.
On a LinkedIn page Mendel-Idowu makes little mention of his football career, describing himself as “president of the Tyndale Society (Christian history and doctrine)”. William Tyndale was the first man to translate the New Testament into English.
He is also a member of Eton’s debating society and says he is “looking to connect with other intelligent minds and further enrich the school through the invitation of authoritative speakers”.
Describing his life combining football with academia, Mendel-Idowu told Fifa, football’s governing body, last year: “I think it’s come to the point where my team-mates respect my dual endeavours, but largely due to my footballing quality. As long as I keep performing on the pitch, as I do, I don’t think they care too much!”
He has moved to Anderlecht on a free transfer, where it is believed he was offered a considerably higher salary than at Barcelona.
Announcing his decision to leave on social media on Friday, he said: “I pass on my appreciation to the academy staff who supported me and allowed me to continue at Eton while playing for Chelsea. I’ve had the opportunity to grow, not only as a player, but also as a man.”
Eton said last night that it was “very proud” of its pupil’s achievements. The school added: “We wish him all the very best as he embarks upon a fresh challenge with Anderlecht — we will follow his career with interest.”
