Josafat Wooding "Joe" Mendes (born 31 December 2002) is a Swedish 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 le ...

who plays as a defender for

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

club S.C. Braga.

Early life

Born and raised in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, Mendes started to play football as a youngster for local club

AFC United Athletic Football Club Eskilstuna, also known as AFC Eskilstuna or simply AFC, is a Swedish football club located in Eskilstuna. The club has previously been known under the names FC Café Opera and Väsby United before switching ownership and t ...

, before moving to

AIK AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

at age 12. In 2020, he appeared in several friendlies for the club's first team, but did not feature in any competitive games.

Club career

Hammarby IF

In 2021, Mendes joined

Hammarby Talang FF Hammarby Talang FF, more commonly known as Hammarby TFF or HTFF for short, is a Swedish football club from Stockholm. Originally founded in 2003, the club was dissolved in 2011, before being re-incorporated in 2016 and again in 2021. Competin ...

in Ettan, Sweden's third division. During the first half of the season, he scored once in 12 league appearances, whilst also providing six assists. On 19 July 2021, Mendes was promoted to their parent club

Hammarby IF Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish sports club located in Stockholm, with a number of member organizations active in a variety of differe ...

in Allsvenskan, the domestic first tier, signing a two-year deal. He made his competitive debut only days later, on 22 July, coming on as a substitute in a 3–1 home win against

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...

in the UEFA Europa Conference League.

Return to AIK

On 21 December 2021, it was announced that Mendes returned to his former club AIK, in an undisclosed deal between the two rival clubs. He signed a four year-contract with the Allsvenskan club, effective in January 2022.

S.C. Braga

On 28 January 2023, Portuguese side Braga announced the signing of Mendes on a five-and-a-half year long contract.

International career

In 2018, Mendes won two caps for the Swedish U17 national team, playing in two friendlies against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. He made his full international debut for

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

on 12 January 2023 in a

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

2–1 win against

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

Personal life

Born in Sweden, Mendes is of DR Congolese and Angolan descent. He is the cousin of the Swedish footballer Jardell Kanga.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mendes, Joe 2002 births Living people Footballers from Stockholm Swedish footballers Sweden under-21 international footballers Sweden youth international footballers Swedish people of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Association football defenders Hammarby Talang FF players Hammarby Fotboll players AIK Fotboll players Ettan Fotboll players S.C. Braga players Primeira Liga players