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 1984-1985, aged 18, and reached the Portuguese national team shortly after. In 1989 Mended joined Sporting"s rivals South.L. Benfica, being sparingly used in three years – in between, he played one season at Boavista F.C. – winning the domestic cup in his last one, where he teamed up with Futre. Released by the Eagles, he played for three clubs in as many years, before joining the last of the Big Three, Football Club Porto, thus playing for all the major clubs in his country as Futre.
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 side Vitória de Setúbal, for his first season in the second division, which ended in promotion. After helping the Sadinos retain their division 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.