Marco Júlio Castanheira Afonso Alves Ferreira (born 12 March 1978) is a Portuguese former 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 played as a winger. He amassed

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

totals of 127 games and 15 goals over the course of eight seasons, representing mainly in the competition

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória (b ...

and

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

. He also played professionally in Spain, Japan, England and Greece.

Club career

Primarily known for his speed, Ferreira was born in

Vimioso Vimioso (, ) is a municipality in the district of Bragança in the northern part of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 4,669, in an area of 481.59 km². It is recognised as having a significant number of Mirandese speakers. In 1516, Vimio ...

in the Bragança District, and started his career at

F.C. Tirsense Futebol Clube Tirsense, commonly known as just Tirsense, is a Portuguese football club from Santo Tirso, founded on January 5, 1938. They currently play in the Divisão de Elite of AF Porto. They currently play their home games in Abel Alves de F ...

in 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 ...

. In 1998 he moved to Atlético Madrid B, but only lasted a few months in Spain, finishing the season at Yokohama Flügels in the

J1 League The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the system. Founded in 1992, it is one of the most successful leagues in Asian club football. Contested by 18 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the J ...

. Ferreira would go on to represent

F.C. Paços de Ferreira Futebol Clube Paços de Ferreira () is a Portuguese football club based in Paços de Ferreira, Porto district. Founded in 1950, the club competes in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at the 9,077-seater Estádio da Mata Real, a municipal stadi ...

– also in his country's second level – where he was a key player, spending the following three-and-a-half seasons at

club

. In January 2003 he joined

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

, being part of the

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix GOIH (; born 26 January 1963), is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Italian Serie A club Roma. Once dubbed "The Special One" by the British ...

-led squad that defeated

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

in the 2002–03

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

, coming on as a substitute for Capucho in the 98th minute. He also featured in several

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

matches in the following campaign, but was not selected for the team that won the decisive match, and also added two consecutive league championships during his time with the northerners, wearing jersey No. 78 due to his birthyear. After that, Ferreira was loaned to Vitória de Guimarães for 2004–05. In the following year he made the same move, now to

F.C. Penafiel Futebol Clube de Penafiel ( or ) is a Portuguese Association football, football club founded on 8 February 1951 and based in the city of Penafiel, Portugal, Penafiel. Brief history Penafiel first reached the Portuguese Liga, first division in Po ...

, but was released in January 2006 and promptly signed with S.L. Benfica, until June 2009; while in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

he was unable to establish himself as a first-team player, and was placed on the transfer list. On 31 August 2007, Ferreira joined English side Leicester City on loan until the end of the year, but his contract was terminated in December after becoming unsettled in the country, making no senior appearances for the club(he was an unused substitute in a 3–2 League Cup win over

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

on 18 September). Subsequently, he finished the campaign with

C.F. Os Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, commonly known as Os Belenenses (), is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 25,000-seat Estádio do Rest ...

, also appearing very rarely. In August 2008, Ferreira signed with modest

Ethnikos Piraeus FC Ethnikos Piraeus 1923 Football Club ( el, Εθνικός Πειραιώς 1923) is a Greek football club based in Piraeus and its parent sports club is Ethnikos OFPF. The club was officially formed in 1923 as ''Keravnos'' ( en, Lightning), but ...

. He spent 18 months at the Greek second division team, being released and retiring at the age of 32.

International career

Ferreira's debut for

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

came in a

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

with

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

on 12 October 2002, playing six minutes after taking the place of

Luís Figo Luís Filipe Madeira Caeiro Figo (; born 4 November 1972) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a winger for Sporting CP, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter Milan. He won 127 caps for the Portugal national team, a one-ti ...

. He went on to earn a further two caps during that year.

Honours

Porto *

: 2002–03, 2003–04 * Taça de Portugal: 2002–03 * Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira:

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

: 2003–04 *

: 2002–03

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferreira, Marco 1978 births Living people Portuguese footballers Men's association football wingers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players F.C. Tirsense players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players Vitória F.C. players FC Porto players UEFA Champions League winning players UEFA Cup winning players Vitória S.C. players F.C. Penafiel players S.L. Benfica footballers C.F. Os Belenenses players Segunda División players Atlético Madrid B players J1 League players Yokohama Flügels players Leicester City F.C. players Football League (Greece) players Ethnikos Piraeus F.C. players Portugal men's international footballers Portuguese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Japan Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Greece Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Japan Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Greece Sportspeople from Bragança District