Place of birth Setubal, Portugal Name Fernando Mendes 1979–1980 Montijo Role Footballer | 1980–1985 Sporting CP Height 1.78 m Years Team | |
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Full name Fernando Manuel Antunes Mendes Date of birth (1966-11-05) 5 November 1966 (age 49) | ||
Fernando Manuel Antunes Mendes (born 5 November 1966 in Setúbal) is a retired Portuguese footballer who played as a left back.
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Football career
Having brought up at Sporting Clube de Portugal's youth system at the same time as Paulo Futre, Mendes made his first-team debuts in 1984–85, aged 18, and reached the Portugal national team shortly after. In the following seasons he started regularly for the Lions, but they only won one trophy.
In 1989, Mended joined Sporting's rivals S.L. Benfica, being sparingly used in three years – in between, he played one season at Boavista F.C. – winning the Taça de Portugal in his last one, where he teamed up with Futre. Released by Benfica, he played for three teams in as many years before joining the last of the Big Three, FC Porto, thus representing all the major clubs in his country as Futre.
With the northern side, Mendes won his second Primeira Liga championship (the first as an important member), to which he contributed with 22 matches and three goals. In the following two campaigns, which ended in the same fashion, he also appeared regularly.
Aged nearly 33, Mendes left for another spell at Belenenses, then joined hometown's Vitória de Setúbal, for his first season in the second division, which ended in promotion. After helping the Sadinos to retain their league status, he retired from professional football with top division totals of 321 games and 12 goals; he also received 11 full caps in one decade, but did not attend any major international tournament.