| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Fernando Mendes Soares Gomes[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1956-11-22)22 November 1956[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Porto, Portugal[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 26 November 2022(2022-11-26) (aged 66) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Porto, Portugal | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Striker | ||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1972–1974 | Porto | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 1974–1980 | Porto | 158 | (125) | ||||||||||||||
| 1980–1982 | Sporting Gijón | 27 | (12) | ||||||||||||||
| 1982–1989 | Porto | 183 | (163) | ||||||||||||||
| 1989–1991 | Sporting CP | 63 | (31) | ||||||||||||||
| Total | 431 | (331) | |||||||||||||||
| International career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1974 | Portugal U18 | 6 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 1974–1977 | Portugal U21 | 14 | (6) | ||||||||||||||
| 1975–1988 | Portugal | 48 | (13) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
Fernando Mendes Soares Gomes (22 November 1956 – 26 November 2022) was a Portuguese professionalfootballer who played as astriker.
He achieved great success withPorto, during the late 1970s and 1980s. He representedSporting CP in thePrimeira Liga as well, and also spent two years in Spain withSporting de Gijón.
The recipient of nearly 50caps forPortugal, Gomes represented the nation in oneWorld Cup and oneEuropean Championship.
Showing great ability since enteringPorto's youth academy,Porto-born Gomes scored twice in his first-team debut in 1974, scoring twice in a 2–1 win overCUF.[2] Except for a two-year stint inLa Liga withSporting de Gijón (nearly one year of inactivity due totendonitis),[3] when most key players left theEstádio das Antas in support ofdirector of football – later president –Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa,[4] he was in all important moments of the rebirth of the club: the 20-yearPrimeira Liga drought end in the1978–79 season, the firstUEFA Cup Winners' Cup final againstJuventus in1984 and, while he missed the1987final of theEuropean Cup againstBayern Munich after breaking a leg in training days before, he netted five times in the side's victorious campaign, including once in the semi-finals withDynamo Kyiv;[5] he still recovered in time to play in theEuropean Supercup againstAjax and theIntercontinental Cup againstPeñarol, on both occasionscaptaining the winner and scoring the opening goal in the latter game for a 2–1 victory.[6][7]
In addition, Gomes also won five leagues, threePortuguese Cups and threedomestic supercups.[2] Due to personality clashes with Porto's board of directors, he signed withSporting CP,[8] ending his career in1990–91 after still netting 22 goals in his final season and also helping theLions tothe semi-finals of theUEFA Cup, aged 34.[9]
Gomes retired with Portuguese League totals of 404 matches and 319 goals.[10] His nickname, "Bi-bota", was given after the twoEuropean Golden Boot awards he received, in 1983 and 1985.[11][12] He remained the best goalscorer in the national territory for more than two decades only behindBenfica'sNené, and later returned to Porto, going on to work with the club in an ambassadorial role.[13]
For thePortugal national team, Gomes scored 13 goals in 48 games from 9 March 1975 until 16 November 1988. His final appearance occurred againstLuxembourg for the1990 FIFA World Cupqualifiers, netting the only goal at theEstádio do Bessa.[14]
Gomes was part of the squads at bothUEFA Euro 1984[15] and the1986 World Cup, reaching the semi-finals of the former tournament, being one of the few players that did not defect from the national side after the latter competition (following the infamousSaltillo Affair) and ending his international career two years later.[16]
Apart from being a technically gifted player and a prolific goalscorer, Gomes' talent resided on a fantastic positional sense, which made him very dangerous inside the six-yard box, and earned him a reputation as a "poacher" in the media. In 2023, Tom Hancock ofFourFourTwo magazine considered him to be one of the best strikers of the 1980s.[3][17][18]
Gomes once quoted: "Scoring a goal is like having an orgasm."[19] Benfica strikerNuno Gomes, who played in the 1990s and 2000s, chose the nickname "Gomes" in deference to him.[20]
On 17 January 2020, Gomes' daughter Filipa died in mysterious circumstances. She worked in thefashion industry, and was 32.[21][22][23]
On 26 November 2022, Gomes died ofpancreatic cancer, four days after his 66th birthday. He had been fighting the disease for the three years prior to his death.[24]
| Club | Season | League | National cup[a] | Europe | Other | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Porto | 1974–75 | Primeira Divisão | 24 | 14 | 2 | 3 | 2[b] | 1 | — | 28 | 18 | |
| 1975–76 | Primeira Divisão | 23 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 3[b] | 1 | — | 28 | 13 | ||
| 1976–77 | Primeira Divisão | 28 | 26 | 6 | 8 | 1[b] | 0 | — | 35 | 34 | ||
| 1977–78 | Primeira Divisão | 25 | 25 | 7 | 4 | 1[c] | 1 | — | 33 | 30 | ||
| 1978–79 | Primeira Divisão | 29 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 2[d] | 1 | — | 32 | 28 | ||
| 1979–80 | Primeira Divisão | 29 | 23 | 5 | 5 | 4[d] | 2 | 1[e] | 0 | 39 | 30 | |
| Total | 158 | 125 | 23 | 22 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 195 | 153 | ||
| Sporting Gijón | 1980–81 | La Liga | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | — | — | 4 | 1 | ||
| 1981–82 | La Liga | 23 | 11 | 10 | 3 | — | — | 33 | 14 | |||
| Total | 27 | 12 | 10 | 3 | — | — | 37 | 15 | ||||
| Porto | 1982–83 | Primeira Divisão | 29 | 36 | 6 | 13 | 4[b] | 1 | — | 39 | 50 | |
| 1983–84 | Primeira Divisão | 23 | 21 | 5 | 1 | 8[c] | 4 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 26 | |
| 1984–85 | Primeira Divisão | 30 | 39 | 6 | 3 | 2[c] | 2 | 4[e] | 2 | 42 | 46 | |
| 1985–86 | Primeira Divisão | 30 | 20 | 4 | 1 | 4[d] | 0 | 2[e] | 0 | 40 | 21 | |
| 1986–87 | Primeira Divisão | 26 | 21 | 5 | 3 | 8[d] | 5 | 2[e] | 2 | 41 | 31 | |
| 1987–88 | Primeira Divisão | 30 | 21 | 4 | 0 | 1[d] | 0 | 3[f] | 1 | 38 | 22 | |
| 1988–89 | Primeira Divisão | 15 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3[d] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 6 | |
| Total | 183 | 163 | 32 | 22 | 30 | 12 | 11 | 5 | 256 | 202 | ||
| Sporting CP | 1989–90 | Primeira Divisão | 26 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 2[b] | 0 | — | 29 | 9 | |
| 1990–91 | Primeira Divisão | 37 | 22 | 3 | 2 | 10[b] | 5 | — | 50 | 29 | ||
| Total | 63 | 31 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 5 | — | 79 | 38 | |||
| Career Total | 431 | 331 | 68 | 49 | 55 | 23 | 12 | 5 | 567 | 408 | ||
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portugal | 1975 | 4 | 0 |
| 1976 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1977 | 1 | 0 | |
| 1978 | 4 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 4 | 0 | |
| 1980 | 1 | 1 | |
| 1981 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1982 | 2 | 1 | |
| 1983 | 7 | 0 | |
| 1984 | 9 | 2 | |
| 1985 | 7 | 4 | |
| 1986 | 6 | 2 | |
| 1987 | 1 | 1 | |
| 1988 | 2 | 1 | |
| Total | 48 | 13 | |
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 October 1978 | Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal | 1–0 | 1–1 | UEFA Euro 1980 qualifying | |
| 2 | 26 March 1980 | Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland | 1–3 | 1–4 | UEFA Euro 1980 qualifying | |
| 3 | 10 October 1982 | Estádio da Luz, Lisbon, Portugal | 2–0 | 2–1 | UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying | |
| 4 | 6 September 1984 | Estádio do Restelo, Lisbon, Portugal | 1–0 | 1–0 | Friendly | |
| 5 | 12 September 1984 | Råsunda Stadium, Stockholms län, Sweden | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification | |
| 6 | 10 February 1985 | National Stadium, Ta' Qali, Ta' Qali, Malta | 2–0 | 3–1 | 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification | |
| 7 | 3–1 | |||||
| 8 | 12 October 1985 | Estádio da Luz, Lisbon, Portugal | 1–0 | 3–2 | 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification | |
| 9 | 3–2 | |||||
| 10 | 5 February 1986 | Estádio Municipal de Portimão, Portimão, Portugal | 2–0 | 2–0 | Friendly | |
| 11 | 19 February 1986 | Estádio 1º de Maio, Braga, Portugal | 1–3 | 1–3 | Friendly | |
| 12 | 23 September 1987 | Råsunda Stadium, Stockholms län, Sweden | 1–0 | 1–0 | UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying | |
| 13 | 16 November 1988 | Estádio do Bessa, Porto, Portugal | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification |
Porto
Individual