Introducing a new weekly feature on Balls.ie, "Footballers That Time Forgot" will take a look at former professional footballers who once enjoyed a stretch of time in the spotlight, but have since faded out of the public eye and continued with their lives.
The former pros we will be featuring are on the more obscure side, the type of player you had endless duplicates of in your Premier League stickers swaps pile, but all of them made a name for themselves at a high level, and most of them now have quite an interesting occupation.
We will be starting with Charlton Athletic legend Clive Mendonca.
He first came on the scene at Rotherham United.
Mendonca's first extended spell in the first team came after he left Sheffield United (where he started his career) for Rotherham. He scored 27 goals in 84 games for 'The Millers' and began to make a name for himself in the Football League. A brief return to Sheffield United preceded a move to Grimsby Town where Clive Mendonca spent most of the 1990's.
Grimsby goal-getter.
Charlton Athletic legend.
Charlton brought Clive Mendonca to the club in 1997, and he repaid the faith shown in him by firing them to the playoffs in 1998, where of course, he scored THAT hat-trick in the 4-4 thriller at Wembley against Sunderland, which etched his name in Charlton history as they were promoted to the Premier League.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHFkFqVcFGo
He also had some success on the Premier League stage, scoring another hat-trick in Charlton's first home game, a 5-0 win against Southampton, and made a habit of popping up with vital goals, such as this one against Aston Villa.
He retired as a Charlton player in 2002.
Life after football.
After his retirement, Mendonca practically vanished off the face of the Earth. Nobody knew where he was or what he was doing, and in fact, a campaign to find him was started on twitter using the #FindMendonca hashtag.
Even Rotherham United got involved:
And he was eventually found.
What is he up to today?
Clive Mendonca currently works in the Nissan car factory in Sunderland.
Random fact:
He is the nephew of former West Indian cricketer Ivor Mendonca.
