Nuno Mendes: "Playing in the Champions League is a dream"

PSG defender and Portugal international Nuno Mendes conceded an interview to OneFootball in which he discussed multiple topics including his football idols, the UEFA Champions League, and why he chose PSG over staying at Sporting Lisbon.

The young left-back, who already played on loan at PSG last season, completed his move to Paris on a full-time basis this past summer, joining the Paris Saint-Germain organization for good before traveling to the Qatar World Cup with the Portuguese contingent.

Speaking to OneFootball, Mendes acknowledged that playing in the Champions League "is a dream of any aspiring footballer" and that he is pleased to be doing it "alongside and against" the stars he "grew up idolizing."

Here are some interesting excerpts of what Mendes told OneFootball.

About his youth and growing a passion for football...

"[One day] school classes finished and I was going home. I see a gentleman behind me. I continued on and got home. He arrived and went up too. I was scared. I went and opened the door. And the man said, 'calm down, calm down, I’m a scout for Sporting.'"

"He had been watching my games and he said he liked me a lot. He would like me to do some training at Sporting. At the age of nine, that was it."