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| Friday, 15 July 2011 21:58 |
Vitoria Guimaraes sign Pedro Mendes“I have returned to my true home” Pedro Mendes has signed a 2-year contract with his home-town club, Vitoria Guimaraes. Flanked by his two children, Mendes was the star attraction in a ceremony this evening at the Dom Afonso Henriques stadium to present the 2011/12 squad to the fans.
Mendes began his career at Vitoria before moving to FC Porto for a single season where he was an integral part of Jose Mourinho’s team that won the Champions League and Portuguese title in 2003/04. The Portugal international went on to play for Tottenham Hotspur, Portsmouth, Rangers and Sporting, before going full circle to return to his first club eight years after leaving.
“I always said I intended to finish my career at Vitoria Guimaraes. From the day I ended my association with Sporting I began to give the possibility serious thought. I’m very happy because I feel I still have a lot to offer Vitoria,” said Mendes.
“At this point in my career nothing is more enticing that playing for Vitoria. It had to be now, or it would have been too late. It was at Vitoria that I wanted to end my career and I’m going to play to the very limit of my abilities.
“For now I want to enjoy this moment, which is my return to my true home.” by Tom Kundert
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Guimaraes is a "small" team in comparison to Braga achievement-wise. They could have all the support they want but as long as they keep losing I'll be happy. Also I was saying Braga is massive compared to Guimaraes. Practically 4x bigger. Guimaraes and their support is limited to their small city. Braga's will just keep growing and growing and growing in their large city.
It's also pretty nice to see you telling someone who lives in NJ that a 180k people city is "massive".
And let me guess, the "humiliating defeat" is a 2-1? If your club is so big as you make it, Benfica supporters shouldn't be ashamed of such a loss.
If you're on a crusade against Benfica I'd suggest you hire some Porto fans. Your team finished 17 points from Benfica, you'll get nowhere.
That being said, even with the Europa final, Braga didn't make anywhere near what Benfica did, and you can argue they didn't have as good a year as Benfica either. We are always able to recover quickly. Whether we do is another question.
Also remember that there's no harsher critics of Benfica than Benfiquistas themselves.
No matter how big Braga is as a city, Guimaraes always as had more support. At least in Portugal they've had.
Facebook pages don't count for anything. I bet most old school Braga fans don't have one. Sócios are not fans but they are the only reliable indicator you have.
As for the Benfica results, if my club started by losing to Dijon but in a week's time was able to beat PSG convincingly I wouldn't be worried. Plus, they don't even have their central defenders and right defender. ;)
Lol, so now it's become just your opinion that Guimaraes has more fans. I'm guessing the attendance logic didn't work out so well. I will admit that Guimaraes is a city with little over 50,000 people and their participation rate is higher. But to compare the fan base is ridiculous. The city of Braga is the third largest city in Portugal after Lisbon and Porto and has more then 175,063 people. Of course Braga has more fans and has more potential for growth. The city is massive.
Please wait till the 26th of July then. Then well see who falls on whos face. Good luck against that Turkish team btw the way. If Benfica falls on its face in europe I wouldn't be surprised. It's a normal thing already because it happens every year. I'm just going to be laughing again when it happens on the 26th.
4th will be an accomplishment.
I will give you this Bryan/SCB (I hope that's not someone using your name) you have brought interest into a club without interest. I actually take a look at what they are doing just so I'm informed in order to rebuke you.
Sadly Braga isn't even your favorite team. You fall into the category of "my favorite team is whoever beats Benfica. My second favorite team is Braga."
Don't worry, you're not alone in that type of thinking. Many Sporting fans think the same about Benfica, as do Benfica fans about Sporting.
As for the "fan pages", I'm happy to see the growth, especially after coming off the last two seasons. Many Portuguese abroad are from teh area, so it's good to see.
Although I still say that Guimaraes has a much hard core following than Braga.
By the way, Benfica out draws everyone in away matches attendance. Just another notch to go with the average attendance, overall attendance, and world wide following.
Glorioso Giants indeed.
@ Yutik/Russia, socios don't indicate fans. If that were the case, Benfica would have more fans then Barcelona and Man Utd. Regardless, those numbers were in 2009. The next two years for Braga were historic. Check the fan pages and you'd see the numbers I'm talking about.
Almost 30,000 in the Braga page
https://www.facebook.com/pages/SC-Braga/33478081901
Yeah of course I brought up Dijon because they are a european GIANT LOLZ! Let's not forget tieing to Servette and Arderlecht. Benfica are certainly ready for the champions league LOL!
Lets look at attendance.
Last season after Braga was coming off a 2nd place finish they only had 17,000 more fans that Guimaraes for the whole year. They average just over 1,000 more than Guimaraes.
In 09/10 when Braga had that wonderful year and finished 2nd, they average almost 2,000 less than Guimaraes. Guimaraes out drew them by almost 25,000.
Guimaraes also out drew Braga in the 08/09 by over 90,000 for the season.
I won't deny Braga its success, but Guimaraes has always had the bigger fan base.
And of course Bryan/SCB doesn't lose an opportunity to bash Benfica. Only a hater is capable of bringing up Dijon when their last result was a more than convincing 3-1 win against last year's Ligue 1 fourth place team. (By the way, didn't you watch Braga's 2-2 tie with a second division team?)
From where did you get those numbers? Back in 2009 Guimarães had 30000 sócios and Braga had 20000; I have no doubt that Braga has grown since then and maybe has surpassed Guimarães, but it strikes me as odd that Guimarães' number was cut in half.
For those who think Guimaraes is more popular then Braga look at their fan pages. Bragas fan page has almost 30,000 fans (and growing at a high rate) while Guimaraes has only 15,000.
Its hard to get an idea of where Braga would be at atm, however this guimaraes team has also been in the making since their promotion back into the top flight.
I feel something brewing this year for them.
Manuel Machado teams will always be strong and competitive and Pedro Mendes fits into that category perfectly.
The Minho derbies should be tasty affairs this season, but I fear Braga will struggle to live up to last seasons achievements and the loss of Domingos will effect them too.
Injuries have begun to plague him, but hopefully he's fit now. I too hope that Guimaraes comes back strong this season. People may not like this, but they were the 4th most followed team in the league, before Braga started their run the past two seasons. Their rivalry with Braga is also as intense as Benfica vs Sporting. Calling it a mini classico wouldn't do it justice.
It will be interesting to see if they have enough to pass a possibly diminished (my belief) Braga.
In any case he should bring enough quality on the field to go along with loads of experience.
We need them to help portugal in the europa league.
So glad Pedro Mendes found his way back to V.Guimaraes. I respect this player a lot and I was grateful enough to see him play live when Sporting came to Red Bull Arena for that New York Football Challenge tournament. I wish nothing, but the best for him at Guimaraes and theres no doubt he will make their midfield a lot stronger.
BTW too bad his first game back ended up being a 1-0 lost at home to Rio Ave lol