Claudio Mendes Vicente (born 8 December 2000) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

club

Casa Pia The Casa Pia is a Portuguese institution founded by Maria I, known as ''A Pia'' ("Mary the Pious"), and organized by Police Intendant Pina Manique in 1780, following the social disarray of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. For almost three centurie ...

. Born in Spain, he represents Guinea-Bissau at youth international level.

Club career

Born in

Arrecife Arrecife (; ; ) is the capital city and a municipality of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. It was made the island's capital in 1852. The city owes its name to the rock reef ("arrecife" being Spanish for "reef") which covers its local beach. It als ...

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago. With 163,230 inhabi ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

to Bissau-Guinean parents, Mendes represented SRCyD Torrelavega and

CD Orientación Marítima Club Deportivo Orientación Marítima is a Spanish football team based in Arrecife, Lanzarote, in the autonomous community of the Canary Islands. Founded in 1954, it plays in , holding home games at '' Ciudad Deportiva de Lanzarote'', with a capa ...

as a youth before joining

UD Las Palmas Unión Deportiva Las Palmas S.A.D. is a professional association football, football club based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. The club will compete in Segunda División, the 2nd division in the Spanish football league syst ...

in 2019. Initially assigned to the C-team in

Tercera División Tercera División () was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Until 1977, it was the third tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segund ...

, he made his senior debut on 31 August of that year, coming on as a half-time substitute in a 1–2 away loss against CD Buzanada. Mendes scored his first senior goal on 7 September 2019, netting the last in a 3–0 home success over EMF Atlético Unión Güímar. In December, he also started to feature for the reserves in

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

. Mendes made his first team debut with the ''Amarillos'' on 13 June 2020, replacing Juanjo Narváez late into a 0–0

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

home draw against

Girona FC Girona Futbol Club, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. ( ) is a Spanish professional Football team, football club based in Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Founded on 23 July 1930, the team plays in La Liga, to which they gained promotion in the 2022 ...

; aged 19 years and 188 days, he became the third-youngest debutant of the club's history who was born in the isle of

, only behind Sito and

Antonio Betancort Antonio Rodrigo Betancort Barrera (13 March 1937 – 15 March 2015) was a Spanish footballer. He was born in Las Palmas, and played as a goalkeeper for Las Palmas, Real Madrid, and Deportivo La Coruña, and the Spain national team. Antonio Be ...

's debuts. Mendes scored his first professional goal on 20 September 2020, netting a last-minute equalizer in a 3–3 home draw against

CF Fuenlabrada Club de Fútbol Fuenlabrada, S.A.D. is a football club based in Fuenlabrada, Community of Madrid, Spain, that currently competes in Primera División RFEF – Group 1, the third tier of the Spanish league system. It was founded in 1975. It holds ...

. On 25 January 2022, after being rarely used, he was loaned to

Primera División RFEF Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera Ely Rafael Primera Ros ...

side

CF Rayo Majadahonda Club de Fútbol Rayo Majadahonda () is a Spanish professional football club in Majadahonda, in the autonomous community of Madrid. Founded in 1976 it plays in , holding home games at '' Estadio Cerro del Espino'', with a capacity of 3,800 seats. ...

for the remainder of the campaign. On 3 August 2022, Mendes moved to fellow third division side

UD Logroñés Unión Deportiva Logroñés, S.A.D. is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Logroño, in the autonomous community of La Rioja (Spain), La Rioja. Founded in 2009, it currently plays in , holding home matches at ''Estad ...

on loan for one year. On 19 July of the following year, he moved to

UE Cornellà Unió Esportiva Cornellà, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S. A. D. is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Cornellà de Llobregat, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1951 it plays in , holding home gam ...

in the same tier on a permanent deal.

International career

Born in Spain, Mendes is of Bissau-Guinean descent. He represented the latter's under-18s for the 2019 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations qualification, scoring a goal on his debut.

Personal life

Mendes'

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...

brother Leo is also a footballer. A

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

, both finished their formation at Orientación before moving to different teams.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mendes, Claudio 2000 births Living people People from Arrecife Spanish twins Footballers from the Province of Las Palmas Spanish people of Bissau-Guinean descent Bissau-Guinean men's footballers Guinea-Bissau men's youth international footballers Spanish men's footballers Men's association football wingers Segunda División players Primera Federación players Segunda División B players Tercera División players UD Las Palmas C players UD Las Palmas Atlético players UD Las Palmas players CF Rayo Majadahonda players UD Logroñés players UE Cornellà players Casa Pia A.C. players Bissau-Guinean expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Bissau-Guinean expatriate sportspeople in Portugal 21st-century Spanish sportsmen