Cláudio Mendes Prates (born 18 September 1965), known as Cláudio Prates or just Claudinho, is a Brazilian retired footballer who played as a forward, and is the current assistant manager of Bahia.

Known as Claudinho during his playing days, he was an Internacional de Santa Maria youth graduate.^[1] In 1986 he joined Vasco da Gama, and went on to feature sparingly for the club during his three-year spell, split by loans to América-SP, Bragantino, Juventus-SP and Primeira Liga side S.C. Farense.

Claudinho subsequently represented Vitória, Caxias, Figueirense, Košice and ABC before moving to Arabic football. He retired in 2004, with Al Khaleej.

Shortly after retiring, Prates began his career with former club Vitória, being an assistant of the youth setup. In 2006 he was promoted to the first team, remaining as an assistant until the arrival of Givanildo Oliveira as manager.

Prates subsequently followed Givanildo at Brasiliense, Paysandu, Vila Nova, Mogi Mirim, América Mineiro, Sport, Santa Cruz, Ponte Preta and Remo before parting ways in 2011 to become Joinville's assistant. Late in that year he returned to América, being an assistant but also interim manager on some occasions.

On 19 October 2016 Prates left Coelho,^[2] and was named Palmeiras' assistant the following 10 January.^[3] In April 2018, he joined Bahia;^[4] initially an assistant, he was appointed interim manager after the dismissal of Guto Ferreira.^[5]