Clive Paul Mendonca is an English former professional footballer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

, who played as a striker between 1986 and 2002 notably for Grimsby Town

Grimsby Town F.C.

Grimsby Town Football Club is an English football club based in the seaside town of Cleethorpes, in North East Lincolnshire, England, who compete in the Conference National. They were formed in 1878 as Grimsby Pelham and later became Grimsby Town...

 and Charlton Athletic

Charlton Athletic F.C.

Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. They compete in Football League One, the third tier of English football. The club was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the southeast London area,...

. Mendonca also played for Sheffield United

Sheffield United F.C.

Sheffield United Football Club is a professional English football club based in the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire.They were the first sporting team to use the name 'United' and are nicknamed 'The Blades', thanks to Sheffield's worldwide reputation for steel production...

, Doncaster Rovers

Doncaster Rovers F.C.

Doncaster Rovers Football Club is an English football club, based at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. The team currently competes in the Football League Championship, after being promoted via the League One play-offs in 2008, and have remained there since.The club was founded in...

 and Rotherham United

Rotherham United F.C.

Rotherham United Football Club are an English professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, who compete in League Two, the fourth tier of English football. The club's colours have traditionally been red and white, although these have evolved through history...

.

Career

Mendonca started his career with Sheffield United

Sheffield United F.C.

Sheffield United Football Club is a professional English football club based in the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire.They were the first sporting team to use the name 'United' and are nicknamed 'The Blades', thanks to Sheffield's worldwide reputation for steel production...

, before spells with Doncaster Rovers

Doncaster Rovers F.C.

Doncaster Rovers Football Club is an English football club, based at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. The team currently competes in the Football League Championship, after being promoted via the League One play-offs in 2008, and have remained there since.The club was founded in...

, Rotherham United

Rotherham United F.C.

Rotherham United Football Club are an English professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, who compete in League Two, the fourth tier of English football. The club's colours have traditionally been red and white, although these have evolved through history...

 and Sheffield United again. Mendonca then moved to Grimsby Town

Grimsby Town F.C.

Grimsby Town Football Club is an English football club based in the seaside town of Cleethorpes, in North East Lincolnshire, England, who compete in the Conference National. They were formed in 1878 as Grimsby Pelham and later became Grimsby Town...

 in 1992, initially on loan. Mendonca scored 60 goals in 166 appearances for Grimsby, and is considered to be their best striker in recent history. Mendonca moved to Charlton Athletic

Charlton Athletic F.C.

Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. They compete in Football League One, the third tier of English football. The club was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the southeast London area,...

 in the summer of 1997 and scored twenty eight times for the Addicks in the 1997–98

1997-98 in English football

The 1997-1998 season was the 118th season of competitive football in England.-Premier League:Arsenal overhauled Manchester United's lead during the final weeks of the season to win the Premiership title...

 season, including a hat-trick

Hat-trick

A hat-trick or hat trick in sport is the achievement of a positive feat three times during a game, or other achievements based on threes. The term was first used in 1858 in cricket to describe HH Stephenson's feat of taking three wickets in three balls. A collection was held for Stephenson, and he...

 against Sunderland

Sunderland A.F.C.

Sunderland Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear who currently play in the Premier League...

 in the Division One

Football League First Division

The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....

 play-off final at Wembley. Mendonca is one of many players to score a hat-trick or more at the old Wembley Stadium, with Alan Shearer

Alan Shearer

Alan Shearer OBE, DL is a retired English footballer. He played as a striker in the top level of English league football for Southampton, Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United and for the England national team...

, Geoff Hurst

Geoff Hurst

Sir Geoffrey Charles Hurst MBE is a retired England footballer best remembered for his years with West Ham. He made his mark in World Cup history as the only player to have scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final. His three goals came in the 1966 final for England in their 4–2 win over West...

, Paul Scholes

Paul Scholes

Paul Scholes is a retired English footballer, a one-club man who played his entire professional career for Manchester United.Born in Salford, but later moving to Langley, Scholes excelled in both cricket and football in school. He first trained with Manchester United at the age of 14 after being...

 Stan Mortensen

Stan Mortensen

Stanley Harding "Stan" Mortensen was an English professional footballer, most famous for his part in the 1953 FA Cup Final , in which he became the only player ever to score a hat-trick in a Wembley FA Cup Final...

, Luther Blissett

Luther Blissett

Luther Loide Blissett is a former professional footballer and manager, who is currently a first-team coach at Hemel Hempstead Town. Blissett played as a striker, and is best known for his time at Watford, whom he helped win promotion from the Fourth Division to the First Division...

, Eric Cantona

Eric Cantona

Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona is a French actor and former French international footballer. He played for Auxerre, Martigues, Marseille, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Nîmes and Leeds United before ending his professional footballing career at Manchester United, where he won four Premier League titles in...

, Malcolm MacDonald

Malcolm MacDonald

Malcolm John MacDonald OM, PC was a British politician and diplomat.-Background:MacDonald was the son of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and Margaret MacDonald. Like his father he was born in Lossiemouth, Moray...

, Alex Jackson

Alex Jackson

Alexander Skinner Jackson was a Scottish footballer.Alex Jackson was born in Renton in 1905. A highly-talented winger, known as the Gay Cavalier, he was particularly adept at dribbling and free kicks. He initially played for Renton Victoria Football Club but was transferred to Dumbarton F.C. in...

, Nandor Hidegkuti

Nándor Hidegkuti

Nándor Hidegkuti was a Hungarian football player and manager. He played as a forward or attacking midfielder and spent the majority of his playing career at MTK Hungária FC. During the 1950s he was also a member of the Hungarian National Team team known as the Golden Team...

, David Speedie

David Speedie

David Robert Speedie is a retired Scottish footballer who played for several clubs in England during the 1980s and 1990s, most notably Chelsea, Coventry City, Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers. He accumulated more than 500 football league appearances and scored almost 150 goals in a 14 year...

, and Dennis Wilshaw

Dennis Wilshaw

Dennis James Wilshaw was an English international footballer. He scored 172 goals in 379 appearances in the Football League, and also scored ten goals in twelve appearances for the England national team.-Playing style:...

 being among the others. His hat-trick in 1998 was the last one to be scored at the original Wembley Stadium for an English league team. Mendonca also scored a penalty in the subsequent penalty shoot-out after a 4–4 draw, which Charlton won 7–6.

Mendonca scored another hat-trick in Charlton's first home game in the Premier League, a 5–0 win against Southampton

Southampton F.C.

Southampton Football Club is an English football team, nicknamed The Saints, based in the city of Southampton, Hampshire. The club gained promotion to the Championship from League One in the 2010–2011 season after being relegated in 2009. Their home ground is the St Mary's Stadium, where the club...

. However, Mendonca started to suffer a series of injury problems, with his final appearance for Charlton coming in the first half of the 1999–2000

1999-2000 in English football

-Premier League:Manchester United were crowned FA Premier League champions with an 18-point margin over runners-up Arsenal and with just 3 league defeats all season. This was despite their failure to retain the European Cup and withdrawal from the FA Cup in order to compete in the FIFA Club World...

 season against Queens Park Rangers

Queens Park Rangers F.C.

Queens Park Rangers Football Club is an English professional football club, based in White City, Hammersmith and Fulham, west London. As the 2010-11 Football League Championship champions, they now play in the top tier of English football the Premier League, for the first time in 15 years...

. Although a possible return to Grimsby was mooted, Mendonca retired from football in February 2002.

Personal life

He is the nephew of former West Indian cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er Ivor Mendonca

Ivor Mendonca

Leon Ivor Mendonca is a former West Indian cricketer who played in 2 Tests in 1962.His parents are Ineas Mendonca and Osmond Mendonca. Ivor Mendonca is the oldest of 10 brothers and sisters....

. In 2004 he won both the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

's "Grimsby's cult heroes" and "Charlton's cult heroes" polls with 52% and 43% respectively.

External links