Alberto Marcos Rey (born 15 February 1974) is a Spanish retired

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. After not being able to establish himself at

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

, he went to play for 15 professional seasons with

Valladolid Valladolid () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province o ...

, experiencing two relegations and one promotion and appearing in nearly 500 competitive matches.

Club career

Marcos was born in

Camarma de Esteruelas Camarma de Esteruelas () is a Spanish village and municipality in the autonomous community of Madrid in central Spain, 35 km northeast of the city of Madrid and 5 km north of Alcalá de Henares Alcalá de Henares () is a Spanish city ...

, Community of Madrid. After emerging through the ranks of

he played three

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

matches for the 1995 national champions, his debut coming on 17 April 1994 in a 1–0 away win over

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It plays in Spanish football's top flight, La Liga. Sevilla have won the UEFA Euro ...

. In a subsequent game against

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

, he effectively marked

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

international

Hristo Stoichkov Hristo Stoichkov Stoichkov ( bg, Христо Стоичков Стоичков, ; born 8 February 1966) is a Bulgarian former professional Association football, footballer who is a football commentator for TUDN. A prolific Forward (association ...

, but could never break into the first team. In the 1995–96 season, Marcos signed with

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid () or Valladolid, is a professional football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish league system. The club colo ...

, going on to be a defensive mainstay for over a decade, amassing nearly 500 appearances in all competitions and eventually gaining team captaincy. From

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

he only missed a total of eight league fixtures, and became, late in 2008–09, the player with most overall and first division matches for the club. Two seasons earlier, as the

Castile and León Castile and León ( es, Castilla y León ; ast-leo, Castiella y Llión ; gl, Castela e León ) is an autonomous community in northwestern Spain. It was created in 1983, eight years after the end of the Francoist regime, by the merging of the ...

side returned to the top division after a two-year absence, he had contributed 29 matches, scoring once. Marcos suffered with various injuries the following campaign, and appeared in only 21 league games whilst completing just 12, his third worst input in 15 years with Valladolid. In July 2010, at 36 – and following the team's relegation – he decided to leave the club, holding the records of more league games played (438), more official matches (471) and more games (361) and minutes (31.610) in the top flight. Late into the month, Marcos signed with SD Huesca of the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

, reuniting with former Valladolid coach

Onésimo Sánchez Onésimo Sánchez González (born 14 August 1968), known simply as Onésimo as a player, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as forward or winger, currently a manager. Onésimo was mainly associated with Real Valladolid thr ...

. He was the undisputed starter in his position during the season as the

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

ese retained their league status, and retired from football in June 2011 to become Valladolid's director of football.Alberto Marcos: "Por supuesto que tengo la plantilla que quería" (Alberto Marcos: "Of course I have the squad I wanted")
Marca, 4 September 2013 (in Spanish)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Marcos, Alberto 1974 births Living people Footballers from Madrid Spanish footballers Association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Real Madrid C footballers Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Madrid CF players Real Valladolid players SD Huesca footballers Spain under-21 international footballers