Marco André Rocha Pereira (born 12 January 1987), known simply as Marco, 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 le ...

who plays for

C.D. Santa Clara Clube Desportivo Santa Clara is a Portuguese football club from Ponta Delgada, Azores. They play in the 13,277-seat Estádio de São Miguel. They are the most successful football team from the Azores Islands as the only team from the archipelag ...

as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Club career

Born in

Castelo de Paiva Castelo de Paiva () is a town and a municipality of the Aveiro District in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 16,733, in an area of 115.01 km2. On 4 March 2001 at 9 pm, a 116-year-old metal bridge linking the parish/council of Sobrado (a.k ...

Aveiro District Aveiro District ( pt, Distrito de Aveiro, or ) is located in the central coastal region of Portugal. The capital of the district is the city of Aveiro, which also serves as the seat of Aveiro Municipality. Aveiro District is bordered by the Po ...

, Marco came through the ranks at

Boavista F.C. Boavista Futebol Clube, commonly known as Boavista (), is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Porto. Founded on 1 August 1903 by British entrepreneurs and Portuguese textile workers (thus the "FC" being appended – the British way as oppos ...

before moving to

C.D. Trofense Clube Desportivo Trofense (), commonly known as Trofense, is a Portuguese football club based in Trofa, Portugal. Founded in 1930, it plays in Segunda Liga, holding home games at '' Estádio do Clube Desportivo Trofense'', with a capacity of 5,0 ...

, initially on loan. In 2008–09, the club's first in the

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, ...

, he played 12 games and Paulo Lopes 18; his debut was a 1–0 away win against

Vitória S.C. Vitória Sport Clube, commonly known as Vitória de Guimarães, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Guimarães that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top-flight of football in Portugal. Vitória de Guimarães have finished thir ...

on 22 February 2009. Marco remained playing regularly in the Segunda Liga over the ensuing seasons, for Trofense,

C.D. Feirense Clube Desportivo Feirense, commonly known as CD Feirense or just Feirense, is a Portuguese football club based in Santa Maria da Feira. Founded on 18 March 1918, Feirense play in the LigaPro, the second tier of Portuguese football. Their chair ...

and

S.C. Freamunde Sport Clube Freamunde is a Portuguese Association football, football club based in Freamunde, Paços de Ferreira. Founded on 19 March 1933, it currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal (league), Campeonato de Portugal, holding home matches at ...

. On 24 May 2017, he joined

, being second-choice to Serginho as the Azoreans finished

runners-up A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.

C.D. Nacional Clube Desportivo Nacional, commonly known as Nacional and sometimes Nacional da Madeira (), is a Portuguese football club based in Funchal, on the island of Madeira. Founded on 8 December 1910, it currently plays in the Liga Portugal 2, Portug ...

. He subsequently replaced the veteran as starting goalkeeper, and in June 2021 he was rewarded for his role in a best-ever sixth-place finish with three more seasons to his contract. Aged 34, Marco made his

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

debut on 22 July 2021 in the first leg of the

second qualifying round The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds eac ...

of the new

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Europa Conference League (abbreviated as UECL) is an annual football club competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on their ...

. He kept a

clean sheet In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

in a 3–0 win away to

KF Shkupi KF Shkupi ( mk, ФК Шкупи, sq, Klubi Futbollistik Shkupi) is a professional football club based in Čair, Skopje, North Macedonia. The club plays in the Macedonian First Football League, which is the top tier of football in the country. ...

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

, as well as the 2–0 victory in the second leg a week later.

References

External links

*
National team data
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Marco Pereira 1987 births Living people People from Castelo de Paiva Sportspeople from Aveiro District Portuguese footballers Association football goalkeepers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Boavista F.C. players C.D. Trofense players C.D. Feirense players S.C. Freamunde players C.D. Santa Clara players Portugal youth international footballers