Nuno Mendes. ‘It’s just the beginning’
He started in a small club in Sintra, but his talent was too notorious to go unnoticed and was quickly discovered. Nuno Mendes’ feet magic, when they date the ball on the pitch, is still surprised and it is difficult to draw boundaries (if any, it is early to say). There are those who already speak, in fact, in a possible Golden Ball, after the shine they made in recent weeks, winning the French League, with the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) jersey, and now the League of Nations, with the colors of the Portuguese team, which adds to its nomination of Champions’ year and also being elected the best player of the final of the Nations League.
«It’s the most special and the best week in my career»said the star to journalists, following the two achievements, adding that the national team, as it could not be, «Has a special meaning». And shot: «I have to thank my colleagues a lot. It is continuing to work, I have a lot ahead. It’s just the beginning ». This was the 23rd individual prize awarded by FIFA or UEFA, and it is the first time in this century, and only the second in 43 years of individual prizes in major competitions, which a defense is elected the best player (excluding goalkeeper), which is case to say that we have a potential breaker of currents in the typical standards of the players galadated in these circles. But only for the most distracted their performance in the League of Nations was it a surprise.
The beginning of everything:
From Sintra to Alvalade
Coming from an Angola family that emigrated to Portugal, Nuno Mendes was born on June 19, 2002, in Sintra, a city where the love for sport and football, in particular, would also be born, through the Awakening Club, in Casal de Cambra, managed by coach Bruno Botelho.
At just nine years old, he was already standing out from most of his colleagues, and it didn’t take much time until the ‘lions’ notice him. The story is known, but it is always worth remembering: one day like any other (or so it seemed), the young Nuno walked the streets of Sintra, returning from school, when he realizes that someone was following him, and ran home quickly. Then he took a knife, hoping something bad was about to happen. Shortly thereafter, your ‘Stalker’ knocks on the door: he was a scout of Sporting, who already had him in the target, after watching his performance on the pitch of Sintra.
For a whole year, the little star learned and evolved in Sporting’s training field, with two -hour round trip to Sintra. But sweat and dedication were not in vain. The direction of the club of Alvalade eventually offered him a place in his dormitories. A few years later, in 2020, Nuno Mendes, then 17, was debuted in Sporting’s first team as a left side, entering the place of Argentine Marcos Acuña to the 72-minute pass against Paços de Ferreira, in a match counting for the 26th round of the NOS League. The hurricane was starting now.
After two years giving Sporting all drops of sweat, Nuno Mendes’ talent would have matured in Paris. The player was already loaned by Sporting to PSG, but signed a contract until June 30, 2026 with the French soccer champions. According to the More footballthe left-back renewed the contract until 2029, becoming the third best paid athlete on the squad, as well as the best paid among the Portuguese, without termination clause. «You arrived a boy, salts as champion»wrote the Leonino club on social networks at the time. Time came to give it reason.
287 days, 44 games
off the pitch
The Portuguese star was making an amazing installment out there. But the more the wings make us fly, the greater the fall, and sometimes unexpected. Nuno Mendes, in 2023, suffered a major injury to the right leg hamstring during a game against Lorient, where the Parisian team lost 3-1. The Portuguese player even had to go through a very demanding period of treatment and rehabilitation, with a total of 287 days off the pitch, a total of 44 lost games. It was a complicated moment, even more because everything seemed to be going well, and the player was saying at all speed, in turbo mode. Would you go back to the initial form or the injury would leave sequelae?
By 2022, during the World Cup, he had scared when he suffered a muscle injury to his left thigh during the game between Portugal and Uruguay. Now it was left to give time to time. Nuno Mendes returned to the asset last year.
Lurking
With all the euphoria in which he has been wrapped in Nuno Mendes, the player is in the mouths of the world, being a possible candidate for the Golden Ball, an achievement that seems unlikely but not impossible. The hurricane does not slow down: it is considered by many to the end of the time as the best left back in the world. And the fact that he completely annulled the fearsome Lamine Yamal at the meeting of the League of Nations against Spain only increased his prestige. But he himself kicked the sides of the award: «I don’t focus on that much. I play my football, there are players who are closer to getting it »I told reporters when they arrived in Portugal. In the target, however, are names like Yamal, Raphinha, Dembelé and, of course, our vitinha.
Out of the field
If the quality had not yet been noted by all to people, the truth is that their installment has been increasingly in the sights of soccer lovers and, of course, the creators of content on the internet. This is the case of influencer Spanish Roberto López, who never tires of praising the player’s talent. «Nuno Mendes is not human… It is undoubtedly the best left back in the world».
And if in the field he gives to speak, the truth is that outside of him Nuno Mendes is very reserved, keeping his personal life outside the spotlight. The player is in a serious relationship with Brazilian model Thalyta Silva, but this year alone, in May, is that the relationship was publicly assumed. Thalyta celebrated in the pitch with the player the victory of PSG in the Champions League.
