Marcos Magno Morales Tavares (born 30 March 1984) is a retired Brazilian

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 striker. Tavares spent 15 seasons with Slovenian team

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...

, and is the club's all-time most capped player and top goalscorer. He is also the all-time top goalscorer of Slovenian top division with 159 goals. At international level, Tavares was part of the Brazilian youth national teams from under-17 to under-20.

Early life

Tavares was born in

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, , Brazilian ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of 1,488,252 inhabitants (2020) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, twelfth most populous city in the country ...

and spent his childhood in the city's

slums A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily inh ...

with his father, a worker at

Internacional Sport Club Internacional (), commonly known as Internacional or simply Inter, is a Brazilian professional football club based in Porto Alegre. They play in the Série A, the first division of the Brazilian league, as well as in Campeonat ...

, and his mother, a teacher. He is the youngest of three children and throughout his youth the family was living in poverty, sharing a one bedroom home where all five family members were sleeping in the same room and on the floor. Tavares claims he started playing football to help his family, and after spending a few years at Internacional youth selections, he was noticed by their city rivals Grêmio at the age of 13 and accepted their financial offer to switch clubs as he wanted to provide the financial means for his father to build a bigger home. However, Internacional and Grêmio are fierce city rivals who contest the

Grenal "Grenal" is the nickname for matches between two of Brazil's leading football clubs, both located in the city of Porto Alegre, state of Rio Grande do Sul: Gre refers to Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense and Nal refers to Sport Club Internacio ...

derby and his father soon enough found himself unemployed.

Club career

Early career

Tavares has maintained that he was unable to manage the conflict between professional and personal life during his teenage years, and that his excessive partying, drinking and overall lack of discipline contributed to his failure to succeed in Brazil. At the age of 19 he went to Malaysia in desire for quick implementation. In the 2004 season, he played for

Kedah Kedah (), also known by its honorific Darul Aman (Islam), Aman and historically as Queda, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The state covers a total area ...

in the

Malaysian Super League The Malaysia Super League ( ms, Liga Super Malaysia) is the men's top professional football division of the Malaysian football league system. Administered by the Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnership (FMLLP), now known as the Malaysi ...

, where he scored eleven league goals. When the season ended, Tavares returned to Brazil, where he signed a two-year contract with

Atlético Paranaense Club Athletico Paranaense (commonly known as Athletico and formerly known as Atlético Paranaense) is a Brazilian football team from the city of Curitiba, capital city of the Brazilian state of Paraná, founded on March 26, 1924. The team ...

in February 2005. However, he featured in only two games, both in

Campeonato Paranaense Campeonato Paranaense, which has been contested since 1915, is the top-flight football league of the state of Paraná, Brazil. Format The format has changed in 2014. 12 teams are together in a single group. They play against each other once, ...

, before being released by the club in May 2005. After that, he once again continued his career in Kedah, where he was the team's top goalscorer in the

2005–06 Malaysia Premier League The 2005–06 Liga Premier ( en, 2005–06 Premier League), also known as the TM Liga Premier due to sponsorship reasons, was the third season of the Liga Premier, the second-tier professional football league in Malaysia. The season began on 4 Dec ...

with twelve goals. After one season with Kedah, he was noticed by

Roberto de Assis Moreira Roberto de Assis Moreira (born 10 January 1971), commonly known as Assis, is a Brazilian former footballer who is also the brother, manager, agent and adviser of footballer Ronaldinho. He is also the owner of Porto Alegre Futebol Clube. Biog ...

, who took him to

. In 2007, Tavares moved to Europe as he signed for Cypriot side

APOEL APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

. He scored four goals in the

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup () is the main cup competition in Cypriot football, run by the Cyprus Football Association (CFA). It began in 1934, the same season with the Cypriot Championship. It is the second most important competition for Cypriot club team ...

, but in the

Cypriot League The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

he played only five matches without scoring any goals. Because he didn't perform as the club expected, Tavares was released from APOEL in January 2008.

Maribor

While playing for APOEL, Tavares met

Nilton Fernandes Nilton Rogério Cardoso Fernandes (born 7 March 1979), known simply as Nilton, is a Cape Verdean former footballer who played as a midfielder. He spent most of his career in Portugal, amassing Primeira Liga totals of 110 matches and one goal w ...

, who introduced him to

Zlatko Zahovič Zlatko Zahovič (; born 1 February 1971) is a Slovenian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. After making a name for himself in Europe in Portugal, most notably with Porto and Benfica where he amassed Primeira L ...

, the director of football at the Slovenian team

. Tavares joined the team at their winter training camp in Croatia, and debuted in a

friendly game 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 * ...

against

Šibenik Šibenik () is a historic city in Croatia, located in central Dalmatia, where the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea. Šibenik is a political, educational, transport, industrial and tourist center of Šibenik-Knin County, and is also the ...

. He signed a contract with Maribor on 29 January 2008. Tavares made his official competitive debut on 1 March 2008 against

Koper Koper (; it, Capodistria, hr, Kopar) is the fifth largest city in Slovenia. Located in the Istrian region in the southwestern part of the country, approximately five kilometres () south of the border with Italy and 20 kilometres () from Triest ...

in the 21st round of the

2007–08 Slovenian PrvaLiga The 2007–08 Slovenian PrvaLiga season started on 20 July 2007 and ended on 31 May 2008. Each team played a total of 36 matches. Clubs League table Relegation play-offs Drava Ptuj won 2–1 on aggregate. Results Every team plays four ...

season. Tavares soon established himself in the team and among the fans. In the next season, he won the Slovenian championship with Maribor, the club's first title in six years. He was the league's second best goalscorer with 15 goals, and was voted the best player of the season. Tavares also received the Guest Star 2008 award, which is awarded to the best foreign sportsperson in Slovenia. In the 2009–10 season, he scored 10 goals in 34 league matches. In addition, he scored five goals in five cup matches, helping Maribor to win the 2009–10 Slovenian Cup. In October 2009, Tavares became the team captain after

Zoran Pavlović Zoran Pavlović (born 27 June 1976) is a former Slovenian footballer who played as a midfielder. Club career Although he was born in Tuzla, Pavlović's family moved to Velenje when he was young. He started his career at Rudar Velenje, making h ...

left the club. In September 2010, he signed a new contract with Maribor until 2013. In the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season, he won the league title with Maribor and was crowned as the best league goalscorer with 16 goals. In addition, he was the club's best assist provider with 15 assists. For his performances during the course of the season, he was voted as the most valuable player by the Slovenian PrvaLiga players. He was also selected as the most distinguished player of the season by the fans of Maribor. In July 2012, Tavares scored his tenth goal for Maribor in

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

competitions in a match against Željezničar Sarajevo, becoming the club's all-time top scorer in UEFA competitions. The next month, he signed a new five-year contract with Maribor. In December 2012, Tavares was again selected as the most distinguished player of the previous season by the fans of Maribor, winning his second "Purple Warrior" trophy. He was officially announced as the winner during the half-time of the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

game against

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

on 6 December, where he later scored his 14th goal in European competitions. In May 2013, he was voted, alongside Nikola Nikezić and Enis Đurković, as the best striker of the

2012–13 Slovenian PrvaLiga The 2012–13 Slovenian PrvaLiga was the 22nd edition of the Slovenian PrvaLiga since its establishment in 1991. Also known by the abbreviation 1. SNL, PrvaLiga was contested by the top ten clubs in Slovenia, for the title of national champions. T ...

season. He scored 17 goals in the 2012–13 PrvaLiga season, becoming the league top goalscorer for the second time in three years. On 31 July 2013, Tavares scored against his former team, APOEL, in the

2013–14 UEFA Champions League The 2013–14 UEFA Champions League was the 59th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 22nd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was ...

third qualifying round. On 26 April 2014, Tavares scored his 117th goal for Maribor in a league match against Koper, tying with Branko Horjak as the club's all-time top goalscorer. On 7 May 2014 he became the sole record holder when he scored two second-half goals in a 4–0 away win against Krka. On 26 August 2014, he scored the only goal of the match in a 1–0 win over

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

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 ...

play-off round The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

, helping Maribor to qualify for the group stage of the competition for the first time since 1999. On 22 April 2017, Tavares set a record for the fastest goal scored in the Slovenian top division as he scored after eight seconds in a match against

Domžale Domžale (; german: Domschale)''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 24. is a town and the seat of Municipality of Domžale. The town lies ...

. On 16 August 2017, Tavares scored in a 2–1 defeat against Hapoel Be'er-Sheva in the Champions League

, which was the crucial

away goal The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

as Maribor won the second leg 1–0 and qualified for the group stages. On 25 November 2017, Tavares scored his 130th goal in the Slovenian top division, tying himself with

Štefan Škaper Štefan Škaper (born 6 October 1966) is a retired Slovenian football forward. He played for Beltinci between 1990 and 1996 and Mura between 1996 and 2000. Škaper was the Slovenian PrvaLiga top goalscorer for two consecutive seasons in 1993– ...

as the all-time top goalscorer in the Slovenian PrvaLiga. On 2 December 2017, he became the sole record holder after scoring the winning goal against Gorica in a 2–1 victory. A few days later, on 6 December 2017, Tavares scored his first goal in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League in a 1–1 home draw against

Sevilla Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Gua ...

. On 25 August 2019, he scored his 200th goal for Maribor in all competitions during a league game against

Bravo Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels *Bravo (band), a Russian rock band * Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984 *Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing company ...

. In May 2022, Tavares retired from professional football after spending 15 seasons with Maribor. In his last home game against

Aluminij Aluminij is a Bosnian aluminium manufacturing company with headquarters in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2016, it was one of the largest regional producers of aluminium with sales of 156,500 tons of aluminium, and third-largest exporte ...

on 14 May 2022, he played together with his son, Marcos Tavares Jr. (born 2004), who made his senior debut in the last minutes of the game, thus fulfilling Tavares's longstanding wish to play one match with his son. Before the match, the club retired his number 9 jersey, and also renamed the West Stand of

Ljudski vrt Ljudski vrt ( en, People's Garden) is a football stadium in Maribor, Slovenia, which has a seating capacity of 11,671. It has been the home of NK Maribor since their formation in 1960, with the exception of a short period in early 1961. It was o ...

to Marcos Tavares Stand in his honour.

Personal life

Tavares met his wife Leticia at the age of 17. The pair has four children together. He is

multilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

, speaking three languages; Portuguese, Slovene and English. In

, he and his wife founded a humanitarian and religious society Kairos which is responsible for helping the people in need. He is also a minister. Tavares gained Slovenian citizenship on 16 September 2013 after residing in the country for more than five years.

Career statistics

Honours

Club

Kedah *

Malaysia Premier League The Malaysia Premier League ( ms, Liga Premier) was the second-tier professional Association football, football league in Malaysia. The league replaced the former second-tier league, Liga Perdana 2 in the Malaysian football league system. The ...

: 2005–06 Maribor *

Slovenian PrvaLiga The Slovenian PrvaLiga ( sl, Prva slovenska nogometna liga, ), currently named Prva liga Telemach due to sponsorship reasons, also known by the abbreviation 1. SNL, is the top level of the Football in Slovenia, Slovenian football league system. ...

: 2008–09,

, 2011–12,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2016–17, 2018–19, 2021–22 *

Slovenian Cup Slovene or Slovenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe * Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia * Slovenes, an ethno-linguistic group mainly living in Slovenia * Sl ...

: 2009–10, 2011–12,

, 2015–16 *

Slovenian Supercup The Slovenian Supercup ( sl, Superpokal Slovenije) was a football match played between the Slovenian PrvaLiga champions and the Slovenian Cup winners. Prior 2007, the match was held only twice, in 1995 and 1996. The competition was resurrected in ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

International

Brazil U17 *

South American U-17 Championship The South American U-17 Championship (; ) is a football competition held every two years for South American under-17 teams. The tournament was born in 1985 out of a need for a classification tournament for the newly created FIFA U-16 World Cup (now ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

Individual

*Slovenian Guest Star Award: 2008 *Slovenian PrvaLiga top scorer:

, 2014–15 * Slovenian PrvaLiga Player of the Year: 2008–09,

*Slovenian PrvaLiga best XI: 2008–09,

, 2014–15, 2017–18 * Maribor Player of the Year: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017

References

External links

Official website

Player profile
at NZS * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tavares, Marcos 1984 births Living people Footballers from Porto Alegre Brazilian footballers Association football forwards Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense players Kedah Darul Aman F.C. players Club Athletico Paranaense players Porto Alegre Futebol Clube players APOEL FC players NK Maribor players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Malaysia Super League players Malaysia Premier League players Cypriot First Division players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Brazilian expatriate footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Malaysia Expatriate footballers in Malaysia Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Slovenia Expatriate footballers in Slovenia Brazil youth international footballers Brazil under-20 international footballers