Márcio Gonzaga de Azevedo (born 5 February 1986), known as Márcio Azevedo, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

Career

Early career

Born in Guarabira, Brazil, Márcio Azevedo joined the local Juventude youth teams at a young age. Following his success in the youth ranks, he was promoted to the first team in 2004. He made his official debut on 3 December 2006, in a 5–3 loss to

Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians () is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author, Sosthenes, and is addressed to the Christian church in C ...

. In the 2006–07 season, despite making 13 appearances (3 assists), Azevedo was not among the coach's first choices, which prompted him to consider other options. In September 2007, he signed with

Fortaleza Fortaleza ( ; ; ) is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeastern Brazil. It is Brazil's 4th largest city—Fortaleza surpassed Salvador, Bahia, Salvador in 2022 census with a population of slightly over 2.4 mi ...

on a loan. He was a regular starter for the side.

Atlético Paranaense

He moved to Atlético Paranaense in June 2008, and appeared 24 times (21 in the championship and 3 in the

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...

) and scored one goal. The following season he continued to be one of the main players on the club's team, playing 29 games (3 assists). In the 2009–10 season, Azevedo was seriously injured for the first time and lost his place in the starting 11. He managed to play in 10 games (3 assists), and at the end of the season he started looking for a new club.

Botafogo

On 1 January 2011, Azevedo transferred to one of Brazil's biggest teams,

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...

. Although he struggled with a new injury that kept him on the bench for most of the season (12 appearances, 1 assist), the club insisted on keeping him. Following this difficulty, Azevedo gained prominence in the 2011–12 season when he played in 33 games (1 goal, 4 assists), impressing the European scouts.

Metalist Kharkiv

On 27 February 2013, after two-and-a-half years with Botafogo, Azevedo signed with

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( ) or UPL is a professional association football league in Ukraine and the highest level of the Ukrainian football league system. Originally known as the Vyshcha Liha ( , ) it was formed in 1991 during the 1992 in ...

club Metalist in

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

, for a transfer fee of 3 million. The move allowed him to join five of his countrymen on Metalist:

Cleiton Xavier Cleiton Ribeiro Xavier (; born 23 March 1983) is a Brazilian former professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder. He is known by his powerful and accurate free kicks, dribbling skills and passes. Club career In his early career, ...

, Willian, Fininho, Jajá, and Marlos. In the second half of the 2012–13 season, he played in only 8 games, but left good impressions on the Metalist staff. In the 2013–14 season, Azevedo played in 33 games (making 1 assist).

Shakhtar Donetsk

After his exceptional appearances with the team of Kharkiv, Azevedo had gained notice and the Ukrainian giants

FC Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk () is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club that was based in the city of Donetsk until 2014 when, due to the War in Donbas (2014–2022), War in Donbas, the club was forced to move to Lvi ...

and

Mircea Lucescu Mircea Lucescu (; born 29 July 1945) is a Romanian professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, currently the head coach of the Romania national football team, Romania national team. He i ...

offered to purchase him. On 17 August 2014, he signed a four-year contract with

for a transfer fee of 4 million. An injury suffered on 9 March 2015 kept him out for 112 days, so that he only competed in 6 games. Despite his return to the squad, his leg injury remained an issue, and in the 2015–16 season he only played 11 games (2 assists). After a very difficult period for the defender, marred by 441 days on the injury list, Azevedo returned to action in a home game against

FC Chornomorets Odesa FC Chornomorets Odesa ( ) is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club based in Odesa, Ukraine. According to the club's website, it was formed in 1936 as ''Dynamo'', but until 2002 it carried a logo with 1958 and 1959

in May 2017.

PAOK (loan)

In late December 2017, the administration of the Greek

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

club

PAOK PAOK (, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινοπολιτών, ''Panthessalonikeios Athlitikós Ómilos Constantinopoliton'', ''Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans''), commonly ...

was close to signing Azevedo. The 31-year-old player was expected to replace Croatian international left defender

Marin Leovac Marin Leovac (; born 7 August 1988) is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a left back for NK Lokomotiva Zagreb, Lokomotiva. Early career Leovac began his career in July 1997 in Austria with Sportunion Aschbach and signed in March ...

, in the current squad of the

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

winners, ahead of the second half of the 2017–18 season. The club signed Azevedo until the end of the season and paid 400,000 for a long on him.

Athletico Paranaense return

On 24 July 2018, Athletico Paranaense announced that they had signed Azevedo until the end of 2019. On 17 December 2018, Azevedo signed a contract extension to stay at the club until the end of December 2020.

Career statistics

Honours

Fortaleza *

Campeonato Cearense The Campeonato Cearense is the professional state football league in the Brazilian state of Ceará. It is run by the Ceará Football Federation (FCF). In over a hundred years of competition, only 11 clubs have won the title. List of champio ...

: 2008 Athletico Paranaense *

Campeonato Paranaense The Campeonato Paranaense is the top-flight professional state football league in the Brazilian state of Paraná. It is run by the Paraná Football Federation (FPF). List of champions Notes * In 1924 Internacional and América merged in ...

: 2009,

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

* J.League Cup / Copa Sudamericana Championship:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Copa do Brasil The Copa do Brasil () is a knockout football competition played by 92 teams, representing all 26 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and it is the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça de Portugal, ...

Shakhtar Donetsk *

: 2016–17 *

Ukrainian Cup The Ukrainian Cup ( ) is an association football national knockout cup competition run by the Ukrainian Association of Football. The competition is conducted almost exclusively among professional clubs. Since the 2003–04 season, the Cup winner qu ...

: 2016, 2017 *

Ukrainian Super Cup The Ukrainian Super Cup () is an association football game of the Ukrainian Premier League in traditional super cup format that acts as the grand-opening for every new football (soccer), football competition season in Ukraine. Originally it was s ...

: 2016, 2017 PAOK *

: 2017–18

References

External links

*
Márcio Azevedo profile
at FutPédia * {{DEFAULTSORT:Azevedo, Marcio 1986 births Living people Footballers from Paraíba Men's association football fullbacks Brazilian men's footballers Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Esporte Clube Juventude players Fortaleza Esporte Clube players Club Athletico Paranaense players Copa Sudamericana–winning players Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas players FC Metalist Kharkiv players FC Shakhtar Donetsk players PAOK FC players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Ukrainian Premier League players Expatriate men's footballers in Ukraine Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Greece 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen