Tozé Mendes
Portuguese football coach (born 1979)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
António José Cardoso Mendes (born 12 March 1979), commonly known as Tozé Mendes, is a Portuguese football coach who is assistant coach of Swansea City.
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | António José Cardoso Mendes | ||
| Date of birth | 12 March 1979[1] | ||
| Place of birth | Guimarães, Portugal | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Swansea City (assistant) | ||
| Managerial career | |||
| Years | Team | ||
| 2020–2022 | Valletta | ||
| 2022–2023 | Malta U19 | ||
| 2023–2024 | Vitória Guimarães B | ||
| 2025 | Marítimo (caretaker) | ||
Coaching career
Early career
Born in Guimarães, Mendes began coaching in the youth ranks of Vitória Guimarães in 2002.[2] In 2011 he moved to Saudi Arabia's Al-Nassr to manage the under-17 team, and returned to his hometown club a year later as B-team assistant manager and under-17 manager.[2] He won the national title in 2013–14.[2]
In 2015–16, Mendes was under-19 manager, and came fourth at the Weifang Cup in China.[2] In November that season he signed a contract with Chinese club Liaoning to manage at the same age range, and in January Vitória allowed him to move on a three-year deal.[2] Mendes returned to Vitória as under-19 manager in 2018, and the under-23 team from 2019 to 2020, then went back to Saudi Arabia for the under-19 job at Al Wehda.[3]
Malta
At the end of the year 2020, 41-year-old Mendes was given his first job as head coach of a senior team, joining Valletta who were 8th in the Maltese Premier League.[3] His debut on 22 January was a 1–0 win over Balzan.[4] He finished the 2020–21 season in 7th place, and left by mutual consent on 3 February 2022 while in 6th.[5]
Mendes became manager of the Malta under-19 team on 29 April 2022.[6] He led the team in their hosting of the 2023 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification, elimination with three defeats, ending with a 2–1 loss to Portugal.[7]
Vitória B
On 1 August 2023, Mendes returned to Vitória as manager of the B team.[8] He left the following 10 April, with one year remaining on his contract; the team were 8th in the Campeonato de Portugal and one point above being placed in the relegation series.[9]
Assistant
Mendes moved to AVS as assistant to Vítor Campelos in July 2024.[10] He joined Marítimo to assist Vítor Matos in August 2025.[11] When Matos departed for Swansea City, Mendes was caretaker manager for a 2–1 home win in Liga Portugal 2 against Penafiel on 23 November.[12]
On 19 December 2025, Mendes moved to Swansea as part of Matos's staff. His arrival at the EFL Championship club had been delayed by work permit issues.[13]
Managerial statistics
- As of 9 July 2023
| Team | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | |||
| Vitória Guimarães U23 | 1 July 2019 | 30 June 2020 | 34 | 10 | 9 | 15 | 29.41 |
| Valletta | 28 December 2020 | 3 February 2022 | 28 | 12 | 4 | 12 | 42.86 |
| Malta U19 | 29 April 2022 | 31 July 2023 | 17 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 5.88 |
| Vitória Guimarães B | 1 August 2023 | 10 April 2024 | |||||
| Total | 75 | 23 | 18 | 34 | 30.67 | ||