Marcos Tavares

In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Morales and the second or paternal family name is Tavares.
Marcos Tavares
Tavares with Maribor in November 2017
Personal information
Full name Marcos Magno Morales Tavares[1]
Date of birth (1984-03-30) 30 March 1984 (age 40)
Place of birth Porto Alegre, Brazil
Height 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)[1]
Position(s) Striker
Youth career
1993–1997 Internacional
1997–2002 Grêmio
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2003 Grêmio 1 (0)
2004 Kedah (11)
2005 Atlético Paranaense 0 (0)
2005–2006 Kedah (14)
2006–2007 Porto Alegre
2007 APOEL 5 (0)
2008–2022 Maribor 436 (159)
International career
Brazil U17
Brazil U20
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Marcos Magno Morales Tavares (born 30 March 1984) is a retired Brazilian footballer who played as a striker. Tavares spent 15 seasons with Slovenian team Maribor, and is the club's all-time most capped player and top goalscorer.[2] He is also the all-time top goalscorer of Slovenian top division with 159 goals.[3]

At international level, Tavares was part of the Brazilian youth national teams from under-17 to under-20.[4][5]

Early life

Tavares was born in Porto Alegre and spent his childhood in the city's slums with his father, a worker at Internacional, and his mother, a teacher.[6] He is the youngest of three children and throughout his youth the family was living in poverty, sharing a one bedroom home where all five family members were sleeping in the same room and on the floor.[6] Tavares claims he started playing football to help his family, and after spending a few years at Internacional youth selections, he was noticed by their city rivals Grêmio at the age of 13 and accepted their financial offer to switch clubs as he wanted to provide the financial means for his father to build a bigger home.[6] However, Internacional and Grêmio are fierce city rivals who contest the Grenal derby and his father soon enough found himself unemployed.[6]

Club career

Early career

Tavares has maintained that he was unable to manage the conflict between professional and personal life during his teenage years, and that his excessive partying, drinking and overall lack of discipline contributed to his failure to succeed in Brazil.[6] At the age of 19 he went to Malaysia in desire for quick implementation. In the 2004 season, he played for Kedah in the Malaysian Super League, where he scored eleven league goals.[7] When the season ended, Tavares returned to Brazil, where he signed a two-year contract with Atlético Paranaense in February 2005.[8] However, he featured in only two games, both in Campeonato Paranaense,[9] before being released by the club in May 2005.[10]

After that, he once again continued his career in Kedah, where he was the team's top goalscorer in the 2005–06 Malaysia Premier League with twelve goals.[11] After one season with Kedah, he was noticed by Roberto de Assis Moreira, who took him to Porto Alegre.[12]

In 2007, Tavares moved to Europe as he signed for Cypriot side APOEL. He scored four goals in the Cypriot Cup, but in the Cypriot League he played only five matches without scoring any goals.[12] Because he didn't perform as the club expected, Tavares was released from APOEL in January 2008.[13]

Maribor

While playing for APOEL, Tavares met Nilton Fernandes, who introduced him to Zlatko Zahovič, the director of football at the Slovenian team Maribor. Tavares joined the team at their winter training camp in Croatia, and debuted in a friendly game against Šibenik.[12] He signed a contract with Maribor on 29 January 2008.[14] Tavares made his official competitive debut on 1 March 2008 against Koper in the 21st round of the 2007–08 Slovenian PrvaLiga season.[15]

Tavares soon established himself in the team and among the fans. In the next season, he won the Slovenian championship with Maribor, the club's first title in six years.[16] He was the league's second best goalscorer with 15 goals, and was voted the best player of the season.[17] Tavares also received the Guest Star 2008 award, which is awarded to the best foreign sportsperson in Slovenia.[18] In the 2009–10 season, he scored 10 goals in 34 league matches.[19] In addition, he scored five goals in five cup matches, helping Maribor to win the 2009–10 Slovenian Cup.[19] In October 2009, Tavares became the team captain after Zoran Pavlović left the club.[20]

In September 2010, he signed a new contract with Maribor until 2013.[21] In the 2010–11 season, he won the league title with Maribor and was crowned as the best league goalscorer with 16 goals.[22] In addition, he was the club's best assist provider with 15 assists.[23] For his performances during the course of the season, he was voted as the most valuable player by the Slovenian PrvaLiga players.[24] He was also selected as the most distinguished player of the season by the fans of Maribor.[25]

In July 2012, Tavares scored his tenth goal for Maribor in UEFA competitions in a match against Željezničar Sarajevo, becoming the club's all-time top scorer in UEFA competitions.[26] The next month, he signed a new five-year contract with Maribor.[27]

In December 2012, Tavares was again selected as the most distinguished player of the previous season by the fans of Maribor, winning his second "Purple Warrior" trophy.[25] He was officially announced as the winner during the half-time of the UEFA Europa League game against Lazio on 6 December, where he later scored his 14th goal in European competitions.[28] In May 2013, he was voted, alongside Nikola Nikezić and Enis Đurković, as the best striker of the 2012–13 Slovenian PrvaLiga season.[29] He scored 17 goals in the 2012–13 PrvaLiga season, becoming the league top goalscorer for the second time in three years.[30] On 31 July 2013, Tavares scored against his former team, APOEL, in the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.[31]

On 26 April 2014, Tavares scored his 117th goal for Maribor in a league match against Koper, tying with Branko Horjak as the club's all-time top goalscorer.[32] On 7 May 2014 he became the sole record holder when he scored two second-half goals in a 4–0 away win against Krka.[33] On 26 August 2014, he scored the only goal of the match in a 1–0 win over Celtic in the UEFA Champions League play-off round, helping Maribor to qualify for the group stage of the competition for the first time since 1999.[34]

On 22 April 2017, Tavares set a record for the fastest goal scored in the Slovenian top division as he scored after eight seconds in a match against Domžale.[35] On 16 August 2017, Tavares scored in a 2–1 defeat against Hapoel Be'er-Sheva in the Champions League play-off round, which was the crucial away goal as Maribor won the second leg 1–0 and qualified for the group stages.[36][37] On 25 November 2017, Tavares scored his 130th goal in the Slovenian top division, tying himself with Štefan Škaper as the all-time top goalscorer in the Slovenian PrvaLiga.[38] On 2 December 2017, he became the sole record holder after scoring the winning goal against Gorica in a 2–1 victory.[39] A few days later, on 6 December 2017, Tavares scored his first goal in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League in a 1–1 home draw against Sevilla.[40] On 25 August 2019, he scored his 200th goal for Maribor in all competitions during a league game against Bravo.[41]

In May 2022, Tavares retired from professional football after spending 15 seasons with Maribor. In his last home game against Aluminij on 14 May 2022, he played together with his son, Marcos Tavares Jr. (born 2004), who made his senior debut in the last minutes of the game, thus fulfilling Tavares's longstanding wish to play one match with his son.[42] Before the match, the club retired his number 9 jersey, and also renamed the West Stand of Ljudski vrt to Marcos Tavares Stand in his honour.[42]

Personal life

Tavares met his wife Leticia at the age of 17.[43] The pair has four children together.[6] He is multilingual, speaking three languages; Portuguese, Slovene and English. In Maribor, he and his wife founded a humanitarian and religious society Kairos which is responsible for helping the people in need.[6] He is also a minister.[6]

Tavares gained Slovenian citizenship on 16 September 2013 after residing in the country for more than five years.[44]

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition[45][46]
Club Season League Cup Continental Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Grêmio 2003 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A 1 0 0 0 1 0 1[a] 0 3 0
Kedah 2004 Malaysia Super League 11 10[b] — — 21
Atlético Paranaense 2005 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A 0 0 0 0 0 0 2[c] 0 2 0
Kedah 2005 Malaysia Premier League 2 4[d] — — 6
2005–06 12 — — 12
APOEL 2007–08 Cypriot First Division 5 0 4 4 2 0 1[e] 0 12 4
Maribor 2007–08 Slovenian PrvaLiga 12 4 2 0 — — 14 4
2008–09 35 15 4 5 — — 39 20
2009–10 34 10 5 5 6 3 1[f] 0 46 18
2010–11 33 16 6 1 6 4 1[f] 0 46 21
2011–12 31 10 6 1 11 2 1[f] 0 49 13
2012–13 29 17 6 4 12 5 1[f] 0 48 26
2013–14 34 13 5 0 12 3 1[f] 1 52 17
2014–15 34 17 3 1 12 1 0 0 49 19
2015–16 33 12 4 1 2 0 1[f] 0 40 13
2016–17 33 9 5 0 6 3 — 44 12
2017–18 32 17 3 0 12 5 — 47 22
2018–19 32 9 5 1 6 2 — 43 12
2019–20 31 6 1 0 8 3 — 40 9
2020–21 25 2 2 1 1 0 — 28 3
2021–22 8 2 0 0 0 0 — 8 2
Total 436 159 57 20 94 31 6 1 593 211
Career total 442+ 184 61+ 38 97 31 10 1 610+[g] 254
  1. ^ Appearance in Campeonato Gaúcho
  2. ^ Seven goals in Malaysia Cup, three goals in Malaysia FA Cup[7]
  3. ^ Appearances in Campeonato Paranaense
  4. ^ Four goals in Malaysia Cup[47]
  5. ^ Appearance in Cypriot Super Cup
  6. ^ a b c d e f Appearances in Slovenian Supercup
  7. ^ Kedah appearances are missing.

Honours

Kedah

Maribor

Brazil U17

Individual

References

  1. ^ a b "Marcos Tavares – osebni karton" (in Slovenian). NK Maribor. Archived from the original on 15 May 2022. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
  2. ^ "Naj strelci in naj nastopi" [Top goalscorers and most capped players] (in Slovenian). NK Maribor. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  3. ^ "Slovenian PrvaLiga all-time statistics" (in Slovenian). Slovenian PrvaLiga. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  4. ^ "SELEÇÃO BRASILEIRA SUB-17 (U-17 BRAZILIAN NATIONAL TEAM) 1985–2007". rsssfbrasil.com (in Portuguese). Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  5. ^ "King's Cup 2000 (Bangkok, Thailand)". RSSSF. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Pocak, Tamara (17 November 2014). "Spal sem na tleh in bil ves čas lačen" [I slept on the floor and was hungry all the time]. Ekipa (in Slovenian). Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  7. ^ a b "Malaysia 2004". RSSSF. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
  8. ^ "Tavares assina contrato com o Atlético". Furacao.com (in Brazilian Portuguese). 23 February 2005. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  9. ^ "Schumacher e Tavares treinaram no time titular". Furacao.com (in Brazilian Portuguese). 27 April 2005. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  10. ^ "Confira quem são os 14 jogadores afastados". Furacao.com (in Brazilian Portuguese). 11 May 2005. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
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  12. ^ a b c Plestenjak, Rok. "Jezus je pot, Tavares pa Maribor" (in Slovenian). Siol. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  13. ^ ΑΝΑΚΟΙΝΩΣΗ (in Greek). APOEL. 30 January 2008. Archived from the original on 1 June 2016. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
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  33. ^ "Ne bom se ustavil" [I won't stop] (in Slovenian). NK Maribor. 8 May 2014. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
  34. ^ R. K. (27 August 2014). "Zadel, molil, zmagal – Tavaresev trenutek kariere" [He scored, prayed, and won – Tavares's moment of his career] (in Slovenian). RTV Slovenija. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
  35. ^ "Maribor z najhitrejšim golom v zgodovini lige odločil derbi" (in Slovenian). Slovenian PrvaLiga. 22 April 2017. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
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  38. ^ Nejedly, Gorazd (27 November 2017). "Za uteho ob porazu je Tavares ujel Škaperja". Delo (in Slovenian). Retrieved 28 October 2021.
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  40. ^ A. G. (7 December 2017). "Milanič: Za uresničitev naše želje manjkala zmaga nad Spartakom" (in Slovenian). Maribor: RTV Slovenija. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
  41. ^ M. L. (25 August 2019). "Maribor ob Tavaresovem jubileju do najvišje zmage v sezoni" (in Slovenian). RTV Slovenija. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  42. ^ a b A. G. (15 May 2022). "Vijoličasti strli Aluminij; Tavares: Nikoli si nisem mislil, da bom postal legenda" (in Slovenian). RTV Slovenija. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  43. ^ "Pred 15 leti sva se na novo rodila". slovenskenovice.si (in Slovenian). 12 April 2021. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  44. ^ "Kapetan je prisegel" (in Slovenian). NK Maribor. 16 September 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  45. ^ "Marcos Tavares". Soccerway. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  46. ^ "Marcos Magno Morales Tavares" (in Slovenian). Football Association of Slovenia. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
  47. ^ "Malaysia 2005". RSSSF. Retrieved 14 July 2017.