Fernando Mendes, Portuguese football player and manager, Died at 78

  Sports

Fernando Mamede Mendes was born on June 15, 1937, in Seia, Guarda District and died on March 31, 2016.

He was a Portuguese football midfielder and manager.

His professional career lasted 13 seasons, he played almost exclusively for Sporting Clube de Portugal, also starting and finishing his football formation at the Lisbon club.

Fernando featured in 233 games during his spell, including friendlies.

He serve for the Portuguese national team during six years, but did not attend any major international tournament: on April 25, 1965 he broke his leg in the early minutes of the away fixture against Czechoslovakia for the 1966 FIFA World Cup qualification, as the national team eventually won it 1–0 thanks to Eusébio, with ten players (no substitutions were allowed then).

He never fully recovered from that situation and retired four years later at only 31.

Playing in 24 Primeira Liga matches over the course of three separate seasons, he served as interim coach at his only club (the last in late 2000-early 2001), winning nine games, drawing nine and losing six; with the Lions, he also worked as an assistant coach and extensively with the youth teams.

Fernando Mendes passed away at 78 yrs old.