Mario Amare Bilate (born 16 July 1991) is a Russian professional

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 plays as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

for

ADO Den Haag Alles Door Oefening Den Haag (), commonly known by the abbreviated name ADO Den Haag (), is a Dutch association football club from the city of The Hague. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation f ...

Playing career

XerxesDZB

Bilate broke into the XerxesDZB first team in March 2010 and scored seven goals in the ten games he appeared in. His form was impressive enough to win him a move to

Sparta Rotterdam Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently compete in the Eredivisie, the top flight ...

, where he had played earlier as a youth.

Sparta Rotterdam

Bilate joined

in January 2011 on a two and a half year deal. He made his competitive debut on 7 August 2011 in a 1-0 win over Fortuna Sittard. In the summer of 2012 Bilate then signed a contract extension to keep him at the club until 2015.

Dundee United

Bilate was released from his Sparta Rotterdam contract a year early and signed a two-year contract with Dundee United in July 2014. Bilate had originally been set to join

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the ...

champions Willem II but the move fell through at the last minute after the

board decided they wanted a transfer fee. He made his debut as a substitute in Dundee United's opening match of the 2014–15 season, a 3–0 win against

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

on 10 August 2014. He then scored the winning goal on his home debut three days later, in a 1–0 victory over

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

, again after coming off the bench. He was released from his contract at

Tannadice Tannadice Park ( gd, Pàirc Thanachais), usually referred to as Tannadice, is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland. It is the home ground of Dundee United F.C., who have played at Tannadice since the club was founded as Dundee Hibernian in 1 ...

in November 2015, after making only two appearances in the 2015–16 season.

Return to the Netherlands

Bilate signed a one-year contract with Den Bosch on 30 June 2016, with an option for another year. On 7 June 2017, Bilate signed a one-year deal with an option for an extra season with Emmen. One year later, in June 2018, he signed a one-year contract with

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional football club based in Waalwijk, that is currently competing in the Eredivisie. Its name is derived from 'Rooms Katholieke Combinatie' ('Roman Catholic Combination' in Dutch) and was established as a merger ...

with an option for one more season. He was promoted to the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

with RKC in the 2018–19 season. On 11 September 2020, Bilate was involved in a swap deal between RKC and

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eerste Divi ...

, with him leaving for the latter and Finn Stokkers moving to the former. His contract was not extended after the 2021–22 season, effectively making him a free agent. According to him, he had been injured for six months due to mismanagement within the club, and had to find out through media reports that his contract had not been extended. On 30 August 2022, Bilate signed a one-year contract with

Career statistics

Personal life

His father Amare is

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

n, he met Mario's Russian mother Marina in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

when Amare was enrolled in the Moscow Conservatory to become a conductor and Marina was a student of singing at

Gnessin State Musical College The Gnessin State Musical College (russian: link=no, Государственный музыкальный колледж имени Гнесиных) and Gnesins Russian Academy of Music (russian: Российская академия музык� ...

. The family moved to the Netherlands when Mario was 1.5 years old.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bilate, Mario 1991 births Living people Footballers from Moscow Association football forwards Russian footballers Dutch footballers Russian people of Ethiopian descent Dutch people of Russian descent Dutch people of Ethiopian descent Russian emigrants to the Netherlands XerxesDZB players Sparta Rotterdam players Dundee United F.C. players FC Den Bosch players FC Emmen players RKC Waalwijk players NAC Breda players ADO Den Haag players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Scottish Professional Football League players Russian expatriate footballers Dutch expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Scotland Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Scotland