Marcos Márquez Lebrero (born 23 July 1977) is a Spanish 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 lea ...

who played as a striker. Over nine seasons (his professional career lasted 15 years) he amassed

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

totals of 249 matches and 78 goals, mainly at the service of

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital city of the Canary Islands (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the m ...

Club career

Born in

Seville Seville ( ; , ) 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 Guadalquivir, ...

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

, and raised in the

youth academy In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team if they show en ...

of local

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, that competes in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. The club was formed on 25 January ...

, Márquez left in 1999 and signed for

Atlético Madrid B Atlético de Madrid B is a Spanish football team based in Madrid. Founded on 17 September 1963, it is the reserve team of Atlético Madrid and currently plays in Primera Federación – Group 2. They play their home games at Cerro del Espin ...

, playing one season with the club in the

. In July 2000 he returned to his native region by joining

Córdoba CF Córdoba Club de Fútbol (), is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Córdoba, Andalusia, Córdoba, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1954 after the dissolution of RCD Córdoba. Currently it plays ...

, where he underperformed. Following stints with

AD Ceuta Asociación Deportiva Ceuta was a Spanish football team based in the autonomous city of Ceuta. Founded in 1996, its last season was 2011–12 in Segunda División B, holding home matches at '' Estadio Alfonso Murube'', with a capacity of 6,500. ...

and

CD Leganés Club Deportivo Leganés, S.A.D. is a professional football club based in Leganés, Community of Madrid. They currently compete in La Liga, the first tier of the Spanish league system. Leganés was officially founded 23 June 1928 and played thei ...

, both from

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

, Márquez moved to

UD Las Palmas Unión Deportiva Las Palmas S.A.D. is a professional association football, football club based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. The club will compete in Segunda División, the 2nd division in the Spanish football league syst ...

on 15 June 2005. From then onwards he became one of the most consistent players of the team, while also captaining them on various occasions; ''El Matador'' (

nickname A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

he received whilst in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

) went down in the history of the club on 24 June 2006 as he scored the goal that meant its return to the second division, the game's only at

CD Linares Club Deportivo Linares was a Spanish football team based in Linares, Jaén, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1990 and dissolved in July 2009, it played its last season in 2008–09, in Second Division B - Group 4. The team's ...

after a pass from

Nauzet Alemán Nauzet Alemán Viera (born 25 February 1985), known simply as Nauzet, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played mainly as a right midfielder. He spent most of his career with Las Palmas, playing 273 competitive games and scoring 4 ...

. Márquez continued to feature heavily in the subsequent years: in the 2006–07 campaign, he won both the

Pichichi Trophy In Spanish Association football, football, the Pichichi Trophy () is awarded by the sports newspaper ''Marca (newspaper), Marca'' to the top goalscorer of each La Liga season. Named after the Athletic Bilbao striker Pichichi (footballer), Rafael ...

and the

Zarra Trophy The Zarra Trophy is a trophy awarded annually by the Spanish sports daily '' Marca'' to the Spanish domestic player with the highest goal total in La Liga. It is named after the former Athletic Bilbao striker Telmo Zarra. It was awarded for th ...

after netting 21 times. Forming an efficient attacking partnership with

Adrián Colunga Adrián Colunga Pérez (born 17 November 1984) is a Spanish former footballer who played as a striker. He appeared in 152 La Liga matches over seven seasons, scoring a total of 36 goals for Recreativo, Zaragoza, Getafe, Sporting de Gijón a ...

in 2007–08 (29 goals between the pair) he was again the main striker the following season and added 21 more, good enough for third in the individual chart although his side barely avoided a drop. After a poor 2009–10 campaign – 34 matches, three goals – Márquez left Las Palmas and signed for another club in the second tier,

UD Salamanca Unión Deportiva Salamanca, S.A.D. () was a historical Spanish football team based in Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 February 1923 and nicknamed ''Los Charros'', the club played in white shirts and black ...

, suffering relegation in his first year. In August 2012, aged 35, he announced his retirement.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Marquez, Marcos 1977 births Living people 20th-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Seville Romani footballers Men's association football forwards Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players CD Utrera players Sevilla Atlético players Atlético Madrid B players Atlético Madrid footballers Córdoba CF players AD Ceuta footballers CD Leganés players UD Las Palmas players UD Salamanca players