From Child Genius to the Champions League? Brainbox football starlet, 18, leaves Eton to sign for top-flight club – nine years after crying on Channel 4 when he could only finish second in clever kids’ competition
- Tudor Mendel-Idowu is one of the most academically gifted teenagers in Britain
- But he is also a football talent and signed with Belgian club Anderlecht last week
An 18-year-old football star has left Eton to sign a top-flight club, nine years after he appeared on Channel 4’s Child Genius and cried when he could only finish second in the clever kids’ competition.
Tudor Mendel-Idowu, 18, is one of the most academically gifted teenagers in Britain and as a King’s scholar at Eton, he is one of only 14 boys a year who are selected after a series of exams.
But he is also one of the UK’s biggest young football talents, who was spotted by Chelsea FC aged eight and has signed with Belgian club Anderlecht last week after a bidding war with Spanish club FC Barcelona.
The son of a Nigerian pastor and an NHS manager, has just done A-levels in Latin, Greek and modern history at Eton and wants to go into foreign policy or international relations if his football career doesn’t work out, The Times reports.
The talented footballer took part in Channel 4’s Child Genius in 2014, then aged eight, with his sister Hazelle, who is three years older than him.
Tudor Mendel-Idowu (pictured), 18, is one of the most academically gifted teenagers in Britain and as a King’s scholar at Eton, he is one of only 14 boys a year who are selected after a series of exams
But he is also one of the UK’s up-and-coming football talents, who was spotted by Chelsea FC aged eight and has signed with Belgian club Anderlecht last week after a bidding war with Spanish club FC Barcelona
Out of 20 entrants the then eight-year-old finished second and was captured on camera crying (pictured here) because he had not won. The footage triggered discussions on whether Child Genius was ‘the cruellest reality show ever’
In the competition children between seven and 12-years-old would complete tasks to test their intelligence using logic, reasoning and memory recall.
Some of the questions Mendel-Idowu was asked would leave many adults baffled, like ‘What is the measure of the ability for a substance to become magnetised?’.
Out of 20 entrants the then eight-year-old finished second and was captured on camera crying because he had not won. The footage triggered discussions on whether Child Genius was ‘the cruellest reality show ever’.
READ MORE: Car crash television at its worst: How star of Channel 4’s Child Genius was reduced to tears in front of millions – while his parents are critical of its makers
In 2016, he went on to win the junior language challenge, a national competition in which more than 1,000 schoolchildren take part. To win, Mendel-Idowu learned Portuguese, Mandarin and Arabic when he was just ten years old.
After the victory, his father, Tolu, 48, said: ‘If he puts his mind to anything he goes for it with all of his heart.’
He seems to do the same in his football carer. While he did not make an appaearance for Chelsea’s first team, he played for their youth team and for England’s under-15 and under-17 squads.
In Mendel-Idowu’s last season with Chelsea’s youth team, he scored 13 goals and assisted in another six in his 35 appearances for the under-18 squad.
His move to Anderlecht is a free transfer and it is believed he was offered a considerably higher salary at the Belgian club than at Barcelona.
He announced his decision to leave on social media on Friday, saying: ‘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.’
Mendel-Idowu told Fifa, football’s governing body, last year about combining his football career with academia: ‘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!’
Eton also said last night that it proud of the achievements of Mendel-Idowu, adding: ‘We wish him all the very best as he embarks upon a fresh challenge with Anderlecht — we will follow his career with interest.’
The talented footballer took part in Channel 4’s Child Genius in 2014, then aged eight, with his sister Hazelle, who is three years older than him (both pictured together here in 2014)
In Mendel-Idowu’s last season with Chelsea’s youth team, he scored 13 goals and assisted in another six in his 35 appearances for the under-18 squad
He announced his decision to leave on social media on Friday, saying: ‘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’
Growing up in Wokingham, Berkshire, which is just 30 mils from Eton, the football is said to have been encouraged to develop his intellect from a young age by his father Tolu and mother Gold, 45.
Mendel-Idowu himself previously said he realised he had an ‘academic gift’ when he was seven years old, but also tended to his passion for football at the same time.
His maternal grandfather, John Adeleye-Abai, played international football for Nigeria and his paternal grandfather, Fola Kayode Mendel-Idowu, was an academic specialising in bio-aeronautics – and the smart young football star is following in the footsteps of both, combining his athletic career with his academic career.
On his LinkedIn page Mendel-Idowu describes 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’. But he made little mention of his football career on his profile.
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