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Pedro Miguel da Silva Mendes (pron. IPA: ['peðɾu 'mẽðɨʃ]; born February 26, 1979 in Guimarães, Portugal) is a Portuguese footballer who plays in midfield for Portsmouth.

He started his career at Vitória Guimarães and made his debut for the Portugal national team on 20 November 2002, a 2-0 friendly win over Scotland. The following season he moved to FC Porto, where he won the Champions League.

In the summer of 2004 Mendes moved to England to play for Tottenham Hotspur. During his first season at Tottenham, in January 2005, he had a controversial decision against Manchester United disallowed out as the referee deemed the ball not to have crossed the line. His effort from 50 yards should have been a relatively easy catch for Roy Carroll, the Manchester United goalkeeper, who fumbled the ball into his own goal [1]. The goal was not given but TV replays re-affirmed that the ball was a considerable distance over the line.

The 2005-06 season saw Mendes reduced to a peripheral role at Tottenham. In the January 2006 transfer window, Tottenham coach Martin Jol offloaded Mendes to fellow Premiership club Portsmouth. Since joining Portsmouth, Mendes has been a regular starter and had been a pivotal player and goal scorer in their fight to avoid relegation. He seemingly assured his place in Portsmouth folklore by scoring both goals in a crucial match against Manchester City; the second coming in the 93rd minute from twenty-five yards out. The result gave his team a 2-1 win and a springboard which eventually led them to survival in the Premiership.

Later that year during the 2006-2007 season on August 23, during a match against Manchester City, Mendes was elbowed in the face by Manchester City player Ben Thatcher who received a yellow card. He was knocked unconscious, suffered a seizure and had an overnight stay in hospital. He has since said "It is the worst thing to have ever happened to me in my career."^[1] Manchester City instigated their own 6 game ban to Thatcher and fined him six weeks wages for the viciousness of his challenge, but the FA felt the incident warranted further investigation. Though a yellow card was issued at the time and the FA has a general policy of not overruling referee decisions as it undermines their authority, they felt the challenge was severe enough to issue further punishment and Thatcher was given an eight match ban 'for serious foul play' with a further suspended fifteen match ban.^[2] Despite the severity of the incident, Mendes was back playing for Portsmouth two weeks after the incident.lll

1. ^ Mendes considered quitting game (HTML). BBC Sport (2006-09-07).
2. ^ Thatcher banned for eight matches (HTML). BBC Sport (2006-09-12).

• BBC profile
• Pedro Mendes career stats at Soccerbase