After cautious negotiations between Fluminense, Olympiacos and Marcelo, one of the best left backs in football history returns to the club that revealed him.
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Marcelo Viera da Silva Júnior
The skillful left-back needs no introduction, with an overwhelming start at Fluminense in 2005, he transferred to Real Madrid in 2007, where he collected titles while maintaining an unrivaled constancy of good performances.
Marcelo was born in Rio de Janeiro on May 12, 1988, since he was a little boy he already demonstrated intimacy with the round, especially in ball control and dribbling. In his childhood, he lived in the neighborhood of Catete, where he always played soccer in the street with his friends.
According to Marcelo’s family, he was always a happy boy and passionate about football, so he had everyone’s support when he decided that his job would be playing ball, especially from his grandfather, Mr. Pedro who made financial efforts for Marcelo to train at Fluminense, in addition to, most of the time, accompanying the little star in this transition stage.
Marcelo sometimes exposed an interesting story of him and his grandfather, one day, Marcelo and Mr. Pedro didn’t have money to pay for transportation to training, they only had one 0,25 coin, so they both thought of a solution, go to the bar close to home to play a slot machine, maybe luck wouldn’t help them?
Done and done, they put the coin in the machine and won 25 reais as a prize, which allowed Marcelo to eat a good snack that day, with the right to a Soda and then go to train accompanied by his faithful squire, his grandfather Pedro.
Marcelo continued training at Fluminense and public transport was a staple in the skilled boy’s home-training routine, until one day luck once again knocked on his door. Marcelo’s grandfather played in the animal game and was contemplated, receiving a good amount of money.
Therefore, Mr. Pedro didn’t think twice and decided to invest the money he earned in an orange VW Beetle, thus taking Marcelo by car every day to Fluminense’s youth training sessions.
Such childhood experiences never made Marcelo shaken, but rather made him increasingly confident of following his dreams and managing to provide a more peaceful life for his family. Marcelo, has the memory of his grandfather’s Volkswagen Beetle marked on his skin, as a tribute to his grandfather, Marcelo got a tattoo of the famous orange Volkswagen Beetle.
Today at the age of 34, Marcelo is still attached to his family, which is obviously bigger than it was before, the left-back is married to Clarisse, whom he met in one of his futsal matches as teenagers, since then they have been together. They got married in 2008 and they have two children, Enzo and Liam. Enzo even seems to want to follow in his father’s footsteps, he trained for a long time at Real Madrid’s academy and collects great goals. Whenever possible Marcelo accompanies Enzo in training and watches his games, just like his grandfather did.
Professional in Fluminense
Marcelo at the age of 16 was asking for passage in Xerém, there was nothing to hold him back in the youth team of Laranjeiras, so in 2005, coach Abel Braga promoted him to the main team of Fluminense.
In 2005, Marcelo ended up participating in just one game for the Flu, but the environment in the professional, especially in training for the main team, was essential for Marcelo to create a shell so that the following season he would be an absolute starter.
In 2006, the promising left winger started very well, he was an offensive winger, with unique ball control and owner of a great vision of the game, such qualities made the Flu coach at the time, Osawaldo de Oliveira, opt for Marcelo’s ownership on the wing left.
Marcelo seemed to be ready for anything that came, any situation of adversity encountered on the field he dominated and went out playing, Marcelo was very fast, which provided strong support to the left offensive sector of Fluminense, in addition to managing to recompose the marking in almost all the opportunities. Since that time, Marcelo has shown himself to be a versatile full-back, who had a characteristic that is fashionable today, being a “builder” full-back.
At the end of the 2006 Brazilian Championship Marcelo together with his teammates managed to make Fluminense escape the degola and finished the championship in 15th place, the not so good performance of the Laranjeiras team did not make the young side’s football stand out. In all, in 2006 he scored 6 goals and provided 3 assists, in addition to being elected the best left back in the 2006 Brazilian Championship.
Desire for European Clubs and the move to Real Madrid
Among the clubs that first took an interest in Marcelo was Juventus. The Juventus team moved in a concrete way on the player, so as to send one of his observers to Rio de Janeiro, to view the talent of Fluminense and then be able to make an offer to the carioca club. The relationship was very positive, but then the Turin club preferred to go to another left-back who played in Germany for Molinaro.
The curiosity is that after a week that there was a change of course by Juventus, Fabio Capello, then coach of Real Madrid, sent Franco Baldini who worked with him in Madrid, who within a few days concluded the purchase of Marcelo for the sum of 4.5 million euros.
The Glory Years
After an expected arrival at the Meringue club, Marcelo was seen as a natural replacement for the legendary Roberto Carlos and for Ramón Calderón, president of the club, the time was a perfect alternative, since the club was undergoing restructuring and wanted to have younger players.
Said the then president about the signing: “He is an important signing for us. He is a young player who will inject speed on the wings and it is part of our plan to bring younger players to the squad. We are very happy, because he is a jewel that half of Europe wanted.”
The young and promising side arrived at Real Madrid in the second half of the 2006/2007 season, ended up playing in just 6 games, but adapted quickly, in the 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 seasons he played more, but not in his main position, was used a lot by Manual Pellegrini as a winger, since he was very fast and skillful. His great performance in those seasons meant that the skilful boy won a contract renewal until 2015. In his first two seasons for Real, Marcelo lifted his first two cups, which were La Liga champions.
Already in the 2010/2011 season, he returned to his original position and became one of the great highlights of Real Madrid and Europe, he was even nominated as one of the 55 best players of the year 2010.
Already consolidated in the squad, with the passage of time Marcelo along with other great players like Sergio Ramos, Cristiano Ronaldo and Xabi Alonso became one of the leaders of the team, he was a stamped figure by the left merengue, place of the field where he shared many joys with the Cristiano Ronaldo dude.
This duo was fabulous, it seemed that they had known each other since they were children, Marcelo understood all the Portuguese movements and vice versa, the merengue fans are both fond of, a duo like this will hardly be seen again.
The distinctive left-back has won 25 official titles for Real Madrid, including 4 FIFA Club World Cups and 5 European Champions Leagues, including being essential for winning “la decima” in 2014 against arch-rivals Atlético de Madrid.
In the face of so much idolatry, Marcelo was missed by the Madrid club, there were so many years of review, partnerships, titles and football well played, which will be marked in the history of Football. At that time, Marcelo won individual awards such as: FIFA selection of the year in 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019
Due to the absolute success with Real Madrid, Marcelo in these years has always defended the Brazilian national team, having participated in the 2014 and 2018 World Cups, in addition to the 2008 Olympics.
The Return
After his departure from Real Madrid in 2022, Marcelo joined Olympiacos in Greece, where he made only 9 appearances and scored three goals. His time in Greece was not as everyone expected and in mid-February Marcelo negotiated the termination of his contract with the Greek club.
Faced with this news, Fluminense was even more confident of repatriating the left-back, and had been working quietly behind the scenes for a long time, to make the deal happen. The president of Fluminense, in a press conference, stated that he was very careful with the negotiation with the star and that he called the player directly to convince him, since there were proposals from MLS clubs and also from Al Nassr of Saudi Arabia, the club where he plays his friend Cristiano Ronaldo.
But none of that messed up the deal with Flu, so on 02/24/2023, to the madness of the tricolor fans, Fluminense announced the permanent signing of Marcelo, who is finally back at Laranjeiras.
Despite all the “hype” generated by the negotiation and hiring of the iconic Lateral, there has not yet been his re-debut, which is only scheduled for after the Carioca Championship.
The left side will be presented by Flu this Friday, 03/08/2023 at the Maracanã stadium, the event will be grandiose, more than 30,000 spectators have already been confirmed, but invitations are still on sale for those who are not supporters of the Fluzão, for whom it is entry will be free.
The event will also feature several attractions and shows, including singer Felipe Ret. Marcelo’s presentation, in addition to being an important gesture to bring the idol to the crowd, will be extremely important for the help of needy people, since at the entrance of the event food will be collected for donations.
So, football lover, anxious to see the star playing again on Canarinho soil?, will he be able to take Fluminense to the top of any championship? I only know that one thing is certain, Marcelo’s value and image as a football player and person will make our football’s visibility reach new levels.
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Written by João Felipe Miller.
