One More for the Books

Portugal forward Carolina Mendes, 37 and back home with Racing Power after spells in Italy, Russia, Sweden and Iceland, reflects on an international career that began a full decade before her country’s tournament debut. She scored Portugal’s first ever finals goal, against Scotland at EURO 2017, and added another against England, remembering that summer in the Netherlands as spectacular and beyond anyone’s expectations. Her role has shifted: still training to be an option for the coach, but now one of the oldest, with an added responsibility to pass on values to the younger players. She credits qualification and positive results with unlocking investment from the federation, clubs and players themselves, and says the next step is competing for a European or World Cup title. Reaching Switzerland would end her time as an international in the best possible way.