Cléver Marcelo Romero Silva (born 4 July 1976) is a Uruguayan retired

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 played as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundari ...

, and is a

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

. After emerging at

Peñarol Club Atlético Peñarol (; English: ''Peñarol Athletic Club'') —also known as ''Carboneros'', ''Aurinegros,'' and (familiarly) ''Manyas''— is a Uruguayan sports club from Montevideo. The name "Peñarol" comes from the Peñarol neigh ...

he spent seven years of his professional career in Spain, notably at the service of Málaga (six seasons), and played for

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

at the

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

Club career

Born in Montevideo, Romero played in the beginning of his career for local teams

Defensor Sporting Defensor Sporting Club is a sports club based in Montevideo, Uruguay. Founded in 1913, Defensor has several sports sections, with football and basketball being the most important and the ones in which the club has achieved significant achievem ...

and

. In the middle of 2001 he was bought by

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' ...

club Málaga CF, teaming up with countryman

Darío Silva Darío Debray Silva Pereira (born 2 November 1972) is a Uruguayan retired professional footballer who played as a striker. After making a name for himself in his country and in Italy with Cagliari, he spent the following seven years of his car ...

. He was instrumental at the

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The t ...

side during his first four years, helping them to the quarter-finals of 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 solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

, via the

Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foo ...

.Clever Marcelo Romero Silva, el 'Gato' del Málaga CF (Clever Marcelo Romero Silva, Málaga CF's 'Cat')

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, 15 November 2015 (in Spanish) In his final two seasons, however, Romero was virtually absent from the lineups, with 2006–07 being spent, with no success, in Segunda División. In early 2008 he had a brief spell with neighbours

Lucena CF Lucena Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. was a Spanish football team based in Lucena, Córdoba, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1968, it was dissolved in 2015. History ''Lucena Club de Fútbol'' was founded in 1968. It was originally ...

of Segunda División B and, on 4 February 2009, signed with

Carolina RailHawks FC North Carolina FC is an American professional soccer team in Cary, North Carolina, a suburb of Raleigh. Founded in 2006, the team plays in USL League One, the third tier of the American league system. The team has played its home games a ...

of the

USL First Division The USL First Division (usually referred to as USL-1) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States and Canada from 2005 to 2010. During its existence, it formed the second tier of soccer in the United States soccer league system ...

. It quickly became apparent that he had suffered significant knee injuries which were not widely publicised, but subsequently all was revealed; physical problems limited him to one substitute appearance in a pre-season exhibition game, and he was released in April without having featured in the league. Romero started working as a manager also in Spain, with amateurs Alhaurín de la Torre CF. He returned to Málaga in 2014, joining newly appointed

Javi Gracia Javier "Javi" Gracia Carlos (; born 1 May 1970) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a defensive midfielder. He played 430 matches both major levels of Spanish football combined, in a 15-year professional career. Afte ...

's coaching staff. On 28 December 2016, following Juande Ramos' dismissal, Romero was appointed first-team manager indefinitely. The following 7 March, he was relieved of his duties.

International career

Romero made his debut for the Uruguay national team on 20 September 1995, in a 1–3 away friendly defeat against

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. After taking part in two Copa América editions,Copa América 1999
at RSSSF he played two games for his country at the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

(the group stage draws to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...

).Senegal cling on to qualify
BBC Sport, 11 June 2002 In total, Romero earned 24

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

in a nine-year span.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Club

Málaga * UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2002

International

Uruguay * Copa América: Runner-up

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

References

External links

*
National team data
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Romero, Marcelo 1976 births Living people Uruguayan people of Spanish descent Footballers from Montevideo Uruguayan men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Uruguayan Primera División players Defensor Sporting players Peñarol players La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Málaga CF players Lucena CF players North Carolina FC players Uruguay men's international footballers 2002 FIFA World Cup players 1997 Copa América players 1999 Copa América players Uruguayan expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in the United States Uruguayan football managers La Liga managers Málaga CF managers Uruguayan expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Spain