Marcelo Moretto
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Moretto | ||
 |
||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Marcelo Moretto de Souza | |
| Date of birth | May 10, 1978 (age 28) | |
| Place of birth | El Dorado, Brazil | |
| Height | 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) | |
| Playing position | Goalkeeper | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club |  SL Benfica |
|
| Number | 31 | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1998 1998 1999 1999-2000 2001 2002 2002-2003 2004 2004 2004-2005 2005- |
São José Portuguesa Londrina Portuguesa Sport Recife Brasiliense  Portuguesa15 de Novembro FC Felgueiras Vitória FC SL Benfica |
10 (0) 6 (0) 3 (0) 8 (0) 27 (0) 23 (0) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Marcelo Moretto de Souza (born May 10th, 1978 in El Dorado, Mato Grosso do Sul) is a Brazilian football goalkeeper who currently plays for Benfica of the Portuguese Superliga.
Contents |
[edit] Career in Brazil
Moretto played for several years in his homecountry, Brazil. He represented teams such as São José, Portuguesa dos Desportos, Londrina, Sport Recife, Brasiliense and 15 de Novembro.
[edit] Arrival in Portugal
In 2003, after completing 25 years of age, Moretto decided to try his luck in Portugal. He represented Salgueiros, at the time playing at the Liga de Honra (the second level football competition of the country), and made a very good first impression during the team's pre-season matches. However, facing serious economical crisis, Salgueiros was relegated to the Portuguese Second Division B (North Zone) and lost all of its professional players. Forced to look for another club to play in, Moretto joined Felgueiras (at the time playing in the Portuguese Liga de Honra as well). There he played for 8 matches, conceding a total of 10 goals. Nevertheless, Moretto caught the attention of other Portuguese clubs.
[edit] Vitória de Setúbal
In January 2005, the keeper was close to play for Estoril-Praia and Penafiel (both Superliga teams at the time), but ended up in Vitória de Setúbal (also playing in the Portuguese Superliga) to replace Ricardo Batista (who had signed for the Premier League team Fulham) after signing a two and a half year contract. In Vitória de Setúbal Moretto met success for the first time. He soon became the coach's first option while the team performed above all expectations, reaching Portugal's second most important trophy, the Portuguese Cup after beating the giants Benfica in the final.
In 2005/2006 Moretto started off the season in Setúbal. The team performed well during the season's first half, with Moretto playing for 17 matches and suffering only as little as 5 goals. After enjoying a remarkable success, Vitória de Setúbal was struck by the resignation of their coach Norton de Matos and a few other players due to unpayed wages. The year 2005 ended with Moretto being the number one goalkeeper of all |European leagues, with the less number of goals conceded per minute played.
[edit] Jump to Benfica
During the 2005 Christmas and New Year break in Portugal, a lot was spoken in the press about Moretto's possible transfer to Benfica or FC Porto. In a controversial move, Moretto followed his will and picked Benfica to be his new club after explaining the allegedly «bad behaviour» of both the player's representant and the FC Porto chairmen (who supposedly tried to lure him to pick Porto as his future squad instead of Benfica). FC Porto officially denied immediate interest in the player. The transfer cost Benfica 1 million Euros and Moretto signed for five and a half years.
Benfica's interest gained strength as Moreira (one of the team's keepers) suffered an injury that would keep him off the pitch for the remainder of the season. Quim, the team's other goalkeeper also suffered and injury, leaving the team with only the junior unexperienced Rui Nereu to play both the Superliga and the Champions League. Upon his arrival to Benfica, he immediately became Ronald Koeman's number one choice for the nets, even when Quim fully recovered.
Throughout the 2005/06 season, Moretto played for 18 occasions on the Portuguese League, once for the Portuguese Cup and 4 times for the UEFA Champions League where he stopped Ronaldinho's penalty and Samuel Eto'o shots. . The Brazilian goalie did not have an easy time after joining Benfica: although he performed many difficult saves, he has suffered from an extreme lack of confidence, performing well below what he has shown to be capable of and conceeding many easy goals.
[edit] Benfica: 2006/2007
At the end of the 2005/2006 season, Ronald Koeman - who picked Moretto as the team's number one keeper - left Benfica to join the Dutch side PSV Eindhoven. The club's new coach Fernando Santos offered equal chances to all of the team's keepers (Moretto, Quim and Moreira). At the moment, the Brazilian goalie is fighting for he's place in the squad.
| SL Benfica - Current Squad |
|---|
|
1 Moreira | 2 P. Correia | 3 Anderson | 4 Luisão | 5 Léo | 6 Petit | 7 M. Ferreira | 8 Katsouranis | 9 Mantorras | 10 Rui Costa | 11 Miguelito | 12 Quim | 15 P. Jorge | 16 Beto | 18 Manú | 20 Simão | 21 Nuno Gomes | 22 Nélson | 23 David Luiz | 25 N. Assis | 26 Karagounis | 27 Derlei | 28 J. Coimbra | 30 Miccoli | 31 Moretto | Manager: Fernando Santos |
