Ryan Mendes
#7 · Forward · age 35 · (C)
Captain, all-time top scorer and record appearance-maker (94 caps).
63
WC26 rating
- Recent form
- 38
- Career peak
- 50
- League level
- 62
- Competition pedigree
- 78
- International pedigree
- 100
- Longevity
- 62
Independent rating — league strength (Opta-anchored) × competition tier × position-normalized output. Not affiliated with EA or FIFA.
Career by season
Source: sofascore · fetched 2026-05-29
Mendes is the symbolic and tactical core of Cape Verde’s debut. At 35 he no longer covers the ground he once did, but his positioning behind Dailon Livramento is the team’s chief creative source — the player who turns broken transitions into shots. Bubista’s instruction is straightforward: get the ball to Ryan in the half-space and let him decide.
For a federation that did not exist as an independent country until 1975 and is home to roughly 500,000 people, having a captain with 80 caps and 22 goals lining up at a World Cup is the kind of statistic that requires a pause. He is the through-line from the 2013 AFCON quarter-final breakthrough to this moment.
Strengths
- off-ball intelligence behind the striker
- left-foot finishing
- leadership and tournament composure
- set-piece delivery
Recent form
Captain throughout qualifying; goal and assist contributions across the campaign anchored the squad's identity. [unverified] Current club confirmed via reporting.
His goal in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations win over Ghana was Cape Verde's first-ever knockout-round victory at AFCON — and arguably the moment the federation believed a World Cup berth was possible.