5 Things You Didn't Know About Brais Mendez

1 – Like many Spanish players, Brais started out playing football sala. He comes from a footballing family - his father Modesto ‘Pupi’ Mendez was also a professional and played for RC Celta’s local rivals RC Deportivo back in the 1980s.

2 – After making his LaLiga Santander debut back in September 2017, Brais has really burst onto the scene particularly in the last couple of months. He’s scored 4 goals and assisted a further 5 in his last 6 matches, form that earned him a Spain debut last month against Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he scored the winner in a 1-0 triumph.

3 – One of his standout performances came this past weekend against Villarreal CF, where he spent two years in the youth academy before joining RC Celta in 2012. Brais cites his time there as having been crucial in his development, but he eventually moved back to hometown Vigo to be closer to his family.

4 – Brais’ sporting idols are LeBron James and Rafael Nadal. In football, he looks up to teammate Iago Aspas, who he joined as one of four Celta youth graduates in the most recent Spain squad along with Rodrigo Moreno and Jonny Otto.

5 – If he wasn’t a footballer, Brais says that he would’ve liked to have gone into the police force.