Carlos Mendes Gomes, a Guinea-Bassau international, joined Exeter City on loan from Bolton Wanderers in September 2025. Growing up in Spain, the winger had been a youth player on the books of Atlético Madrid before playing for Morecambe and later Luton Town.

Born in Senegal, but also qualified to play for Guinea-Bassau and the Gambia, he moved to Spain as a child and - when at school - played youth football for UD Lanzarote. At fifteen he moved to Madrid, where he was on the books of Getafe CD and Atlético Madrid, before joining his family in Salford and starting to play adult football for West Didsbury and Chorlton. Given a professional chance by Morecambe in 2018 shortly before his twentieth birthday, he made seventy-four league appearances (17 goals) over the following three seasons prior to joining Luton Town for an undisclosed fee in June 2021. During his time on the Lancashire coast he had been player of the year in addition to scoring the only goal when the club gained promotion to League One via the play-offs in May  2021. 

Only ever a fringe player during his time at Kenilworth Road, he spent most of the 2022/23 season on loan with Fleetwood Town before a July 2023 move to Bolton Wanderers for a fee reported to be in the region of £300,000. However, after starting just six league games over the following two seasons (with another twenty-two from the bench) he was allowed to join Exeter City on an extended loan basis on transfer deadline day at the start of September 2025 by which time he was reported to have won five caps for Guinea-Bassau.   

Quickly featuring for his new club, Carlos made his Exeter debut as a substitute at Rotherham United a few days after his arrival but was soon to suffer an injury which ruled him out for several months until he reappeared against West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League Cup in December 2025. Returning to the first-team substitutes' bench for the game against Barnsley, he came on five times over the Christmas and New Year period before also making a second-half appearance in the Grecians' 10-1 FA Cup defeat at the hands of Manchester City in January 2026. Carlos subsequently scored his first goal for the Grecians a fortnight later in the win at Port Vale.