Marciano Sanca Tchami (born 3 March 2004), simply known as Marciano, is a Bissau-Guinean 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 for Spanish club

UD Almería Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional football club based in Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 26 July 1989 and known as ''Almería Club de Fútbol'' until 2001, when it was renamed ''Unión D ...

and the Guinea-Bissau national team.

Club career

Youth career

Born in

Bissau Bissau () is the capital, and largest city of Guinea-Bissau. Bissau had a population of 492,004. Bissau is located on the Geba River estuary, off the Atlantic Ocean, and is Guinea-Bissau's largest city, major port, and its administrative and m ...

, Guinea-Bissau, Marciano played for local MEPA Academy as a youth. His talent wouldn't go unnoticed as in 2019, he was offered to go to Portugal to play for

Gil Vicente Gil Vicente (; c. 1465c. 1536), called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese playwright and poet who acted in and directed his own plays. Considered the chief dramatist of Portugal he is sometimes called the "Portuguese Plautus," often refe ...

and later on for

Leixões The Port of Leixões ( pt, Porto de Leixões, ) is one of Portugal's major seaports, located 4 km north of the mouth of the Douro River, in Matosinhos municipality, near the city of Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city i ...

Almería

On 22 January 2022, Marciano signed for

UD Almería B Unión Deportiva Almería "B" is a Spanish football team based in Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 2001, it is the reserve team of UD Almería and currently plays in Tercera Federación – Group 9, holding home game ...

on an undisclosed fee with his contract expiring in 2024 and a release clause of 40 million euros. He made an impressive start to his B team career by scoring two goals against

CD Intergym Melilla The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octo ...

within just three minutes of coming on as a substitute, with one goal in the 31st minute and the other in the 60th minute of the match. He maintained his prolific form and emerged as the top goalscorer for his team, despite starting only ten games in the season. He scored in five consecutive games. Marciano began the 2023 pre-season with

the first team The First Team were the first players known to have played the sport of basketball, having been taught the game in 1891 by James Naismith, who is recognized as the inventor of the sport. The team comprised 18 players who were studying in Springf ...

, but suffered an injury which kept him out until September. He made his professional – and

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 ...

– debut on 6 October 2023, replacing Ibrahima Koné in a 3–0 away loss to

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

. On 31 January 2024, Marciano renewed his contract with the ''Rojiblancos'' until 2028 and was loaned to

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

side

AD Alcorcón Agrupación Deportiva Alcorcón S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Alcorcón, in the autonomous community of Madrid. Founded in 1971, it currently plays in Primera Federación – Group 1, holding home matches at the Municipal de Santo ...

for the remainder of the season.

International career

On 4 October 2023, Marciano was called up to the Guinea-Bissau national team for two

friendlies An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against

Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

and

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

Style of play

Marciano is described as having good off-ball movements and dribbling that help him beat the opposition. He has good passing which is most effective when in the opposition box, making him a more complete forward.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Marciano Tchami 2004 births Living people Footballers from Bissau Bissau-Guinean men's footballers Guinea-Bissau men's international footballers Men's association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players Tercera Federación players UD Almería B players UD Almería players AD Alcorcón footballers Bissau-Guinean expatriate men's footballers Bissau-Guinean expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain 2023 Africa Cup of Nations players