From Step 5 To Wembley Glory

Carlos Mendes Gomes completed a remarkable journey when he scored the goal that sealed promotion for Morecambe in the League Two play-off final last Monday.

- Adam Lanigan

Mendes Gomes’s penalty in extra time sent the Shrimps into League One for the first time and was a crowning moment for a player whose first experience of English football came in Step 5 of the Non-League pyramid.

That was back in 2016 when he went to pre-season training for the under-18 team at South Manchester club, West Didsbury & Chorlton, then in the North West Counties Premier Division.

Steve Settle was the first team manager and he can recall seeing the Morecambe winger for the first time.

“Carlos had come along with one of his friends and he didn’t speak much English,” he says. “He was very sleight but you could see this raw talent which stood out a mile off as he had a rare ability to glide with the ball.”

Ambitions

Mendes Gomes had not been in England long. Born in Senegal, he had moved to Lanzarote with his family when he was a child.