Béni Mpanzu: from the bench to the title

Who Béni is

Béni Mpanzu is a defender at FC Dordrecht. A position where the work is often invisible when it is done well, and very visible when it is not. In August 2025, when we started working together, Béni was going through a difficult period: he was coming off a 2024-2025 season with little playing time, playing with the U23 team while the first team remained out of reach, and had to find a way to stay committed despite a frustrating situation.

This is exactly the kind of context where mental work has the most value: in the grey zone, when you have to keep building without any guarantee of an immediate result.

The areas we worked on

The work with Béni was organised around two main areas.

Inner dialogue and interpreting the coach's decisions. Many athletes interpret some coaching decisions through a negative filter: not being selected quickly becomes proof that they are “not good enough”, a neutral comment can turn into a judgement. This filter feeds an inner dialogue that, far from helping, can undermine them. We worked on identifying these beliefs, questioning them and building more functional thoughts that are closer to reality.

Intrinsic motivation in the face of frustration. Playing for the U23s while the goal remains the first team is a minefield for motivation. The classic trap: waiting for a promise (“if you do this, you'll play”), a compliment from the coach or an outside signal before giving yourself permission to stay consistent. We put in place a new thought process so that Béni's discipline and consistency no longer depend on these outside signals, but on motivation rooted in himself.

A practical tool: the Belief Table

One of the central tools in this work is an exercise I developed and use with my athletes: the Belief Table. Its principle is simple, but its rigour makes all the difference.

For a given situation (a coach's decision, a result, a comment), we complete four steps:

Step	Question
1. The belief	What do I spontaneously tell myself about this situation?
2. The origin	Where does this belief come from? What is it really based on?
3. The alternative thought	What other, more realistic reading is possible?
4. Functional self-talk	What can I concretely tell myself that helps me in the moment?

Illustrative example (for teaching purposes, not taken from a real session):

• Belief : “If I don't play this weekend, it means I'm not good enough.”




• Origin : a hasty generalisation, built on a single tactical choice by the coach, not on an overall assessment by them.




• Alternative thought : “The coach makes tactical choices for a given match; it says nothing about my worth or my path.”




• Functional self-talk : “I control what I do in training. The rest isn't in my hands, and that's OK.”

This tool is complemented by a second one, which we call My Inner Dialogue (free worksheet, sent by email): daily, conscious repetition of functional phrases, chosen and built with the athlete, so that positive self-talk becomes automatic rather than an occasional effort.

The mental changes observed

With this work, several concrete changes appeared in Béni:

• The ability to no longer let a mistake or a bad spell spread to his whole worth as a player.




• Discipline that no longer depends on outside signals (compliments, promises, immediate results) but on stable, intrinsic commitment.




• A transformation of frustration: instead of enduring it, Béni learned to use it as fuel to push his limits in training.




• Immediate resilience in action: the ability to keep asking for the ball and stay in the match right after a mistake, rather than closing up.

In his own words:

“When I miss a move, I keep asking for the ball, and that's OK. I make a good move and it gets me back into the match. […] That's really where I've improved the most.”

Béni Mpanzu

What it looks like on the pitch

Mental work isn't measured by feelings alone. In Béni's case, it translated into concrete, measurable results.

Before we worked together, in the 2024-2025 season, Béni had little playing time and, even though he trained with the first team, he hadn't had the chance to play for the A team.

Since August 2025:

• 819 minutes played with the B team, 4 goals scored : an impressive total for a defender.




• January 2026 : loaned to Sporting Hasselt, where he played 8 matches and won the 1ste Nationale VV title.




• Following this loan : FC Dordrecht took an interest in him and signed him.




• Since the start of the 2026-2027 season : 646 minutes played, 1 goal scored (decisive, as it allowed his team to beat the side in 2nd place) and 1 assist.

A path that started from zero minutes and led, in just over a year, to a league title and a transfer to a club that wanted him.

Consistency, the challenge for the years ahead

There is a rule we apply with each of our athletes: what counts is never an isolated performance. What counts is the ability to perform at a high level, consistently, for at least five years. Knowing how to ride every wave properly, even when the sea is rough.

Mental work has its place at every stage of a sporting career. When everything is going wrong, it helps reverse the dynamic. When everything is going well, it helps maintain that dynamic and close the gap between mental highs and lows, so that performance no longer depends on circumstances but becomes a stable skill.

For Béni, the next stage of this work is therefore not about repeating what worked once, but about consolidating these tools so they last the distance: at Dordrecht, in a new context, with new demands, and over several seasons.

Scientific grounding

Two research frameworks directly support the tools used in this work.

On intrinsic motivation: Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. This foundational theory shows that motivation rooted in autonomous psychological needs, rather than in external rewards or pressures, produces more stable and lasting commitment. That is exactly what we sought to build during Béni's U23 period, when extrinsic motivation (promises, compliments) was available but fragile.

On restructuring beliefs: Turner, M. J. (2016). Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), Irrational and Rational Beliefs, and the Mental Health of Athletes. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1423. This research shows that athletes' irrational beliefs (overgeneralisations, rigid readings of a situation) are linked to poorer mental health and poorer handling of pressure, and that replacing them with more rational, functional beliefs improves both well-being and performance. This is exactly the principle behind the Belief Table.

Sources

• Ryan & Deci (2000) – Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation




• Turner (2016) – Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), Irrational and Rational Beliefs, and the Mental Health of Athletes, Frontiers in Psychology