He built up a roster of the most important Portuguese players, including Deco and Ricardo Carvalho, and was allowed privileged access to the Portuguese team hotel at the European Championships of 2008 by the then manager Luiz Felipe Scolari.
He built up a roster of the leading Portuguese players and every Portuguese player that followed Mourinho to Chelsea was a client of Mendes, including Deco, Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira, Tiago Mendes and Maniche. At the European Championships of 2008 Mendes was allowed privileged access to the Portuguese team hotel by the then manager Luiz Felipe Scolari.