Marco Filipe Lopes Paixão (born 19 September 1984) is a Portuguese 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 ...

who plays as a forward for Turkish club

Şanlıurfaspor Şanlıurfa S.K. is a Turkish sports club located in Şanlıurfa. The football team currently plays in the TFF Second League TFF 2. Lig (Turkish Football Federation Second League), is the third level in the Turkish football league system. It wa ...

Club career

Early career

Born in

Sesimbra Sesimbra () is a municipality of Portugal, in the Setúbal District, lying at the foothills of the ''Serra da Arrábida'', a mountain range between Setúbal and Sesimbra. Due to its particular position at the Setúbal Bay, near the mouth of the S ...

Setúbal District The District of Setúbal ( pt, Distrito de Setúbal ) is a district located in the south-west of Portugal. It is named for its capital, the city of Setúbal. Geography It is delimited by Lisbon District and Santarém District on the north, Év ...

, Paixão spent his early career in Portugal and Spain, playing with lowly teams in both countries – his hometown's G.D. Sesimbra,

FC Porto B Futebol Clube do Porto B, commonly known as Porto B, is a Portuguese professional football team, which serves as the reserve side of FC Porto. They compete in the Liga Portugal 2, the second division of Portuguese football, and play their home ...

CD Guijuelo Club Deportivo Guijuelo is a Spanish football team based in Guijuelo, Province of Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded in 1974 it plays in Segunda División RFEF – Group 1, holding home games at the 1,500-seat ...

Logroñés CF Logroñés Club de Fútbol was a Spanish football team based in Logroño, in the autonomous community of La Rioja. Founded in 2000 and dissolved in 2008 it held home games at ''Estadio Las Gaunas'', with a capacity of 16,000 spectators. History ...

and

Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa (), better known as Cultural Leonesa or La Cultural, is a Spanish football team based in León, in the autonomous community of Castile and Leon. Founded on 5 August 1923, it currently plays in Primera División RF ...

. In 2007–08, he suffered relegation from Segunda División B with Logroñés, and in the following season scored 13 goals for Leonesa.

Hamilton Academical

Paixão's first taste of professional football came in 2009 as he signed for Scottish Premier League club

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championship, having been relegated from the 2020–21 Scotti ...

on 6 August, alongside twin brother

Flávio Flávio is a Portuguese language given name, equivalent of Latin Flavius, and Italian and Spanish Flavio. The Portuguese diminutive form is Flavinho. People * Flávio da Silva Amado (1979), better known as Flávio, Angolan footballer *Antônio Flá ...

. He made his league debut late in the month, 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 11 April 2011, it was announced that Paixão would leave at the end of the campaign. However, just three days later, he was released from his contract with immediate effect, alongside his sibling. He appeared in 56 official matches for the Accies, scoring six goals.

Naft Tehran

On 5 January 2012, Paixão joined his brother in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

after signing with

Naft Tehran F.C. Naft Tehran Football Club ( fa, باشگاه فوتبال نفت تهران, ''Bashgah-e Futbal-e Nuft Teheran'') is an Iranian association football, football club based in Tehran, Iran. They competed in the Persian Gulf Pro League. They were owne ...

until the end of the season. He made his debut in a 3–1 home loss against

Foolad F.C. Foolad Khuzestan Football Club ( fa, باشگاه فوتبال فولاد خوزستان, ''Bāshgāh-e Futbāl-e Fulād-e Khuzestān'') is an Iranian football club, based in Ahwaz, Khuzestan that plays in Persian Gulf Pro League. Foolad F.C. ...

five days later, scoring his first goal in a 1–0 win over

Malavan F.C. Malavan Bandar Anzali Football Club ( fa, باشگاه فوتبال ملوان بندر انزلى, ''Bashgah-e Futbal-e Milâvan Bendâr Anzeli'') is an Iranian football club based in Bandar-e Anzali, Iran. It currently won Iran's second foot ...

on 8 February.

Ethnikos and Poland

In the summer of 2012, Paixão joined

Cypriot Cypriot (in older sources often "Cypriote") refers to someone or something of, from, or related to the country of Cyprus. * Cypriot people, or of Cypriot descent; this includes: **Armenian Cypriots **Greek Cypriots **Maronite Cypriots **Turkish C ...

side

Ethnikos Achna FC Ethnikos Achna Football Club ( el, Αθλητικός Σύλλογος Εθνικός Άχνας), commonly known as Ethnikos Achna, or simply Ethnikos, is a Cypriot football club based in the village of Achna. Founded in 1968, the club current ...

. He netted his first goal for his new club on 3 November, in a 1–1 draw at

AEL Limassol Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou ( el, Αθλητική Ένωση Λεμεσού, translation=Athletic Union of Limassol) commonly known as AEL, is a Cypriot sports club based in the city of Limassol, most famous for its football team. AEL also maintai ...

. In June 2013, Paixão signed a two-year contract with

Śląsk Wrocław Wrocławski Klub Sportowy Śląsk Wrocław Spółka Akcyjna, commonly known as WKS Śląsk Wrocław, Śląsk Wrocław () or simply Śląsk, is a Polish football club based in Wrocław that plays in Ekstraklasa, the highest level of the Polish f ...

in Poland. He scored a career-best 21 goals in 2013–14, but his team could only qualify for the relegation play-offs. In June 2015, Paixão put pen to paper to a two-year deal at

AC Sparta Prague ) but refer to Spartans as "''Rudí''" ( en, The Dark Reds/The Maroons).'' Letenští'' , ground = Generali Česká pojišťovna Arena , capacity = 19,416 , clubname = Sparta Prague , image = Sparta Praha logo.png , image_size = 160px , fu ...

. The following January, after being barely used by the Czech club, he returned to the

Ekstraklasa Poland Ekstraklasa (), meaning "Extra Class" in Polish, named PKO Ekstraklasa since the 2019–20 season due to its sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is the top Polish professional league for men's association football teams. Contested by 18 ...

with Lechia Gdańsk after agreeing to a two-and-a-half-year contract; his twin joined him a month later. Paixão concluded the 2016–17 season with hat-tricks in 4–0 home wins over

Jagiellonia Białystok Jagiellonia Białystok () is a Polish football club based in Białystok that plays in the Ekstraklasa, the top level of Polish football. The club was founded in 1920 by soldiers in the Reserve Battalion in Białystok. Jagiellonia play their home g ...

and

Pogoń Szczecin Pogoń Szczecin Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Pogoń Szczecin (), is a Polish professional football club, based in Szczecin, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, which plays in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of the national football league s ...

. This brought his final tally to 18, joint with Lech Poznań's Marcin Robak as the top scorer. In March 2018, Paixão was removed from the first team when manager Piotr Stokowiec accused him of feigning an injury, and when his contract expired in June, he moved to Altay S.K. in the

TFF First League The TFF 1. Lig, officially known as Spor Toto 1. Lig for sponsorship reasons, is the second level of the Turkish football league system. The league was founded in 2001 as the ''Turkish Second League Category A'' after the reorganization of the ...

. He was top scorer in his first season with the

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban aggl ...

-based team, netting 29 times in 33 games. In December 2023 Paixão signed for

also of the Turkish second tier, with effect from January 2024.

International career

During their spell in Poland, both Paixão and his sibling were repeatedly poised to be called up to the Portugal national team, but nothing came of it.

Personal life

Paixão's twin brother

was also a footballer, Marco being the older by five minutes.

Career statistics

Honours

Individual *

top scorer: 2016–17 (18 goals, joint with Marcin Robak) *

top scorer: 2018–19 (29 goals), 2019–20 (22 goals)

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

(22 goals) 2022–23 (21 goals)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paixao, Marco 1984 births Living people People from Sesimbra Portuguese twins Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Setúbal District Men's association football forwards Segunda Divisão players G.D. Sesimbra footballers FC Porto B players Segunda División B players CD Guijuelo footballers Logroñés CF footballers Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa players Scottish Premier League players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Persian Gulf Pro League players Naft Tehran F.C. players Cypriot First Division players Ethnikos Achna FC players Ekstraklasa players Śląsk Wrocław players Lechia Gdańsk players Czech First League players AC Sparta Prague players Süper Lig players TFF First League players Altay S.K. footballers Şanlıurfaspor footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Iran Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in the Czech Republic Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Iran Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Poland Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in the Czech Republic Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Turkey