Ignacio Méndez-Navia Fernández

Nacho Méndez spent his entire formative career at Sporting de Gijón, moving through the club's B side between 2016 and 2018 before making his professional debut for the first team in August 2017.

On 9 July 2025 he joined Johor Darul Ta'zim on a free transfer, signed as a "heritage player" on the strength of claimed Penang ancestry — a status that let the Malaysian club register him as a local rather than as one of its foreign imports.

His path into Malaysian football has not been entirely smooth off the pitch. Méndez acquired Malaysian citizenship in July 2025, but his eligibility came under scrutiny after FIFA sanctioned seven other JDT players, including João Vitor Brandão Figueiredo and Jon Irazábal Iraurgui, in September 2025 for using forged documents to prove their own eligibility. Méndez was not among those sanctioned, yet his status remained disputed, and he has been left out of national squads under coach Peter Cklamovski, with the club citing injuries or physical condition as the official reason. He has yet to win a senior cap for Malaysia.