Fernando Mendes

Mendes was born in Seia, Guarda District. During his professional career, which lasted 13 seasons, he played almost exclusively for Sporting CP, also starting and finishing his football development at the Lisbon side. He appeared in 233 matches during his spell, including friendlies. Mendes earned 21 caps for Portugal in six years, but did not attend any major international tournament. On 25 April 1965, he broke his leg in the early minutes of the away fixture against Czechoslovakia for the 1966 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, as the national team eventually won 1–0 thanks to Eusébio with ten players (no substitutions were allowed then).

Mendes never fully recovered from that situation, and retired four years later at 31. In 24 Primeira Liga games over three separate seasons, he served as interim manager at his main club (the last in late 2000–early 2001), winning nine, drawing nine and losing six; with the Lions, he also worked as an assistant coach and extensively with the youth teams.