Mendes Gomes’s trip from Atletico to Chelsea – via a detour in England’s tenth tier

Carlos Mendes Gomes was in a state of disbelief. “Am I dreaming?” the Morecambe winger tweeted after the Sky Bet League Two minnows drew a plum FA Cup third-round tie away to Chelsea. His mum, Maria, was equally as incredulous. “I didn’t watch the draw live,” Gomes says. “Then my phone started ringing with messages of congratulations. I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ I told my mum and she was like, ‘Whaaaat? As in Chelsea? Chelsea?’ ”

And it is little wonder. For Gomes, it has been a remarkable journey to the professional ranks, when the prospect of sharing a pitch with the mighty Chelsea must have seemed fantastical. He has travelled from Africa to Spain, where he spent two years in the academy of