Clive Paul Mendonca (born 9 September 1968) is an English former 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 played as a forward between 1986 and 2002, notably for

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "the Mariners", the club was f ...

and

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Charlton, south-east London, England. The team compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Their home ground is ...

. Mendonca also played for

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history ...

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system after winning the 202 ...

and

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional association football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The team plays in EFL League One, the third tier of English football, after suffering relegation fr ...

. Known to his team mates as “Clyde” as a reference to the famous series of films “Any which way” starring Clint Eastwood and Clyde the Orangutan.

Career

Mendonca started his career with

, before spells with

and Sheffield United again. Mendonca then moved to

in 1992, initially on loan. Mendonca scored 60 goals in 166 appearances for Grimsby, and is considered to be their best striker in recent history. Mendonca moved to

in the summer of 1997 and scored twenty eight times for the Addicks in the 1997–98 season, including a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

against his home town team

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

who he'd supported as a boy, in the Division One play-off final at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

. His hat-trick in 1998 was the last one to be scored at the original Wembley Stadium for an English league team. Mendonca also scored a penalty in the subsequent penalty shoot-out after a 4–4 draw, which Charlton won 7–6. Mendonca scored another

in Charlton's first home game in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

, a 5–0 win against

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

. However, he started to suffer a series of injury problems, with his final appearance for Charlton coming in the first half of the 1999–2000 season against

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English f ...

. Although a possible return to Grimsby was mooted, Mendonca retired from football in February 2002. On 9 August 2003, a testimonial match was played against NEC Nijmegen which ended 1–1.

Personal life

He is the nephew of former West Indian

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

Ivor Mendonca. Born in Islington, London, he moved to Sunderland at the age of two. In 2004, he won both the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's "Grimsby's cult heroes" and "Charlton's cult heroes" polls with 52% and 43% respectively. In January 2012 Mendonca auctioned his prized possessions from his football career to help his wife set up her own business. Mendonca works at the

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

plant in Sunderland.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mendonca, Clive 1968 births Living people Footballers from Sunderland English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Sheffield United F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players Footballers from the London Borough of Islington People from Islington (district) English people of Guyanese descent Sportspeople of Guyanese descent