Marcos Tavares

This name uses Portuguese naming customs. The first or maternal family name is Morales and the second or paternal family name is Tavares.
Marcos Tavares
Personal information
Full nameMarcos Magno Morales Tavares[1]
Date of birth30 March 1984
Place of birthPorto Alegre, Brazil
Height1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing positionStriker
Club information
Current team
Maribor
Number9
Youth career
1993–1997Internacional
1997–2002Grêmio
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
2002Grêmio
2002–2003Kedah FA
2003–2004Atlético Paranaense
2004–2005Kedah FA
2005Grêmio
2005–2007Porto Alegre
2007–2008APOEL4(0)
2008–Maribor[A]230(97)
National team‡
2000Brazil U161(0)
2000–2001Brazil U179(2)
2004Brazil U204(1)
2004–2005Brazil U215(4)
2007Brazil U231(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 15 March 2015.

† Appearances (Goals).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 20 October 2012

Marcos Magno Morales Tavares (born 30 March 1984 in Porto Alegre) is a Brazilian-born Slovenian footballer who plays for Maribor in the Slovenian PrvaLiga as a striker. He was also part of the Brazilian youth national teams. He gained the Slovenian citizenship on 16 September 2013.[2] He is Maribor's all-time top goalscorer.[3]

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.[4] 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.[4] 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 built a bigger home.[4] However, Internacional and Grêmio are fierce city rivals who contest the Grenal derby and his father soon enough found himself unemployed.[4]

Club career

During his teenage years Tavares was unable to cope between professional and personal life and he claims his excessive partying, drinking and overall unsporting life were major contributors why he was never given an opportunity in Brazil.[4] At the age of 19 he went to Malaysia in desire for quick implementation. In the 2002–03 season, he played for Kedah FA. When the season ended, Tavares returned to Brazil for a year, where he played for Clube Atlético Paranaense. After that, he once again continued his career in Malaysia and won the league title with Kedah FA. He was also the team's top goalscorer with 25 goals.

After a year and a half with Kedah FA, he was noticed by Roberto de Assis Moreira, who took him to Grêmio and later to Porto Alegre Futebol Clube. He scored a few goals though, however, competition there was simply too big and too quality. On the other hand, Malaysian league was still far away from general publics eyes, so he decided to continue his career in Europe. Assis helped him find a suitable club and in 2007 Tavares signed for APOEL. Soon after arrival he scored some goals in Cypriot Cup matches, but in the Cypriot League he played only 4 matches without scoring any goals. Because he didn't performed as the club expected, Tavares was released from APOEL on January 2008.

At time he spent on Cyprus, he met Nilton Fernandes, who introduced him to Zlatko Zahovič, the director of football at the Slovenian football team Maribor. New Slovenian season was coming up quickly and Tavares had only one chance to show himself to Zlatko Zahovič and to convince him. After his performance contract was signed quickly.

At the time that was left till the end of the 2007–08 season, Tavares established himself well in the team and among the fans. In the next season he was entitled Slovenian champion with Maribor. Beside that he was the first club and second league striker in Slovenian league. He scored 15 goals and because of his incredible technical skills and qualities such as discipline he was declared the best player in Slovenian PrvaLiga for the 2008–09 season. He was also voted for Guest Star 2008, which purpose is to promote foreign public as the important element of Slovenian community. 2009–10 season was again very successful for him. He scored 10 goals in 34 league matches and collected 7 assists. In addition to this achievement he scored 5 goals in 5 cup matches and ultimately won the 2009–10 Slovenian Cup. Because of his loyalty to the club and good relations with fellow players, club officials and Maribor fans, Tavares became the team's captain in October 2009.

In September 2010 he has signed a new contract with the club until the end of 2012–13 season.[5] He had his best season in 2010–11, when he won the league with Maribor and was crowned as the best league goalscorer with 16 goals.[6] In addition, he was the club's best assistant with 15 assists.[7] For his performances during the course of the same season he was voted as the most valuable player by the 1.SNL players[8] and the media.[9] He was also selected as the most distinguished player in the season by the fans of Maribor.[10]

He scored his 10th goal for Maribor in the official UEFA competitions on 18 July 2012 against Željezničar Sarajevo, becoming the all-time top scorer for Maribor in UEFA competitions.[11]

In August 2012 he has signed a new five-year contract with Maribor.[12]

He was selected in the Europa League Team of the Week by the WhoScored.com website on 20 September 2012, when Maribor defeated Panathinaikos 3–0.[13] In this match, Tavares scored his 13th goal for Maribor in UEFA competitions.

In December 2012 he was again selected as the most distinguished player of the previous season by the fans of Maribor, winning his second Purple warrior trophy.[10] He was officially announced as the winner during the half time of the last Europa League game against Lazio on 6 December, where he later scored his 14th goal in the European competitions for Maribor.[14] In May 2013, he was voted as one of the best strikers in the 2012–13 PrvaLiga season, alongside Nikola Nikezić and Enis Đurković.[15] He scored 17 goals in the 2012–13 PrvaLiga season, becoming the league top goalscorer for the second time in three seasons.[16][17] On 31 July 2013, Tavares scored against his former team, APOEL, in the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round.[18] The match ended 1–1 with Tavares scoring an important away goal for Maribor in the 64th minute.[18] This was his fifteenth goal for Maribor in the official UEFA competitions. On 26 April 2014 Tavares scored a goal in a league match against Koper and with his 117th goal in official competitions he tied Branko Horjak on the club's all-time goalscoring table.[19][20] On 7 May he became the sole record holder when he scored two second half goals in a 4–0 away win against Krka.[21][22] On 26 August 2014 he scored in a Maribor's 1–0 win over Celtic in the Champions League play-off round, helping Maribor to qualify for the group stage of the competition for the first time since 1999.[23]

Career statistics

As of 30 August 2014.
Club performance League Cup Supercup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
2007–08APOEL1. Division4044––20104
2007–08Maribor1. SNL12420––––144
2008–09351545––––3920
2009–1034105510634618
2010–1133166110644621
2011–12311061101124913
2012–13291764101254826
2013–14341350111235217
2014–15615000061122
Career total 2181003820515518316139

Honours

Kedah FA
APOEL
Maribor

Personal life

He met his wife Leticia when he was 18 through a mutual friend and the pair has four children together.[4] Tavares also considers Leticia's first child as his own, however, although she visits Slovenia often she lives in Brazil with her biological father.[4] Tavares 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.[4] He is also a minister.[4]

Footnotes

See also

References

  1. ↑ NK Maribor. "Marcos Tavares - osebni karton" (in Slovenian). NK Maribor official website. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
  2. ↑ NK Maribor (16 September 2013). "Kapetan je prisegel" (in Slovenian). NK Maribor official website. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  3. ↑ NK Maribor. "Naj strelci in naj nastopi" [Top goalscorers and most capped players] (in Slovenian). NK Maribor official website. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 Tamara Pocak (17 November 2014). "Spal sem na tleh in bil ves čas lačen" [I slept on the floor and was hungry all the time] (in Slovenian). Ekipa. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  5. ↑ To.G. (28 September 2012). "Tavares pred derbijem podaljšal z Mariborom do l. 2013" (in Slovenian). RTV Slovenija. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
  6. ↑ "Lestvica strelcev" (in Slovenian). Football Association of Slovenia official website. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  7. ↑ NK Maribor. "Podčrtano z vijoličastim" (in Slovenian). NK Maribor official website. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
  8. ↑ R.K. (27 May 2011). "Nogometaši za naj igralca izbrali Tavaresa" (in Slovenian). RTV Slovenija. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
  9. ↑ "Marcos Tavares po izboru Večera najboljši nogometaš sezone" (in Slovenian). Večer. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 NK Maribor. "Vijoličasti bojevnik" (in Slovenian). NK Maribor official website. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
  11. ↑ NK Maribor. "Tavares že do desetih" (in Slovenian). NK Maribor official website. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
  12. ↑ NK Maribor. "Kapetan doživljensko" (in Slovenian). NK Maribor official website. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  13. ↑ "WhoScored Europa League Team of the Week (20 September 2012)". www.whoscored.com. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  14. ↑ NK Maribor. "Vijol'čni bojevnik 2012 – Marcos Tavares" (in Slovenian). NK Maribor official website. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
  15. ↑ R.K. (23 May 2013). "V idealni postavi še Nikezić, Đurković in Tavares" (in Slovenian). RTV Slovenija. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  16. ↑ Sportal (26 May 2013). "Maribor in Tavares do naslova, v Evropo še Domžale" (in Slovenian). Siol. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
  17. ↑ Uredništvo (27 May 2013). "Tavares znova kralj strelcev" (in Slovenian). Nogomania. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 S. J., T. J. (31 July 2013). "Tavaresov gol za vrnitev s Cipra z velikim remijem" (in Slovenian). RTV Slovenija. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
  19. ↑ "Pravi, ko je najpomembnejše" (in Slovenian). NK Maribor official website. 27 April 2014. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  20. ↑ "Posebna čast: Hvala vsem!" [Special honour: Thank you all!] (in Slovenian). NK Maribor official website. 29 April 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
  21. ↑ "Ne bom se ustavil" [I won't stop] (in Slovenian). NK Maribor official website. 7 May 2014. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
  22. ↑ "Krka 0–4 Maribor" [Krka 0–4 Maribor] (in Slovenian). Slovenian PrvaLiga official website. 7 May 2014. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
  23. ↑ R.K. (27 August 2014). "Zadel, molil, zmagal - Tavaresev trenutek kariere" (in Slovenian). RTV Slovenija. Retrieved 27 August 2014.

External links