Pablo Marí Villar (born 31 August 1993) is a Spanish 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 lea ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for club

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

. Marí graduated from

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

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 ...

and played for various clubs throughout his career, in Spain, the Netherlands, Brazil, England and Italy. He won the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

and Série A in 2019 with

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; ), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian multi sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea. It was founded and named after the Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo n ...

, and was included in the Série A Team of the Year that year.

Career

Mallorca

Born in

Almussafes Almussafes ( Spanish: ''Almusafes'') is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Ribera Baixa in the Valencian Community, Spain. History Almussafes was originally a Muslim hamlet, consisting of several farmhouses and a tower. There was a customs o ...

Valencian Community The Valencian Community is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid wit ...

, Marí was a product of

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (, , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or RCD Mallorca, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Palma de Mallorca, ...

's youth system. He made his debut as a senior with the reserves at the age of just 17, going on to spend several seasons in the third division. Marí made his first appearance with the first team on 7 December 2011, playing 30 minutes in a 2–2 draw against

Granada CF Granada Club de Fútbol (), known simply as Granada or ''"Graná"'', is a professional List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in the city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, that currently plays in Segunda ...

after coming off the bench for fellow youth graduate Pedro Bigas. On 5 May 2012 he played his second

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

game, again acting as a substitute in a 1–0 home win over

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 6 September 1909, the club will compete in La Liga for the 2025– ...

. Marí continued to be almost exclusively associated with the B-side until the end of his spell in the

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago forms a Provinces of Spain, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain, ...

Gimnàstic

On 2 September 2013, Marí signed a contract with

Gimnàstic de Tarragona Club Gimnàstic de Tarragona, commonly known as Gimnàstic Tarragona or sometimes just Nàstic, is a Spanish sports club based in Tarragona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Its football team plays in . The club was founded in 1886 an ...

also in the third level. He made his debut for the

Catalans Catalans ( Catalan, French and Occitan: ''catalans''; ; ; or ) are a Romance ethnic group native to Catalonia, who speak Catalan. The current official category of "Catalans" is that of the citizens of Catalonia, a nationality and autono ...

on 12 October, starting and conceding a

penalty Penalty, The Penalty, Penalization, Penalisation, Penalize or Penalise may refer to: Sports * Foul (sports) ** Penalty (golf) ** Penalty (gridiron football) ** Penalty (ice hockey) ** Penalty (rugby) ** Penalty (rugby union) ** Penalty kick (assoc ...

in a 2–2 draw at

CD Olímpic de Xàtiva Club Deportivo Olímpic de Xàtiva is a Spanish football team based in Xàtiva, in the Valencian Community. Founded in 1932 it currently plays in , holding home games at Campo de Futbol La Murta. History Football in Xàtiva can be traced back ...

. Marí scored his first goal for ''Nàstic'' on 1 December 2013, the winner in a 2–1 home victory against

Levante UD B Levante may refer to: People * Levante (singer) (born 1987), Italian pop singer-songwriter * LeVante Bellamy (born 1996), American football player Places * Levante, Spain, the eastern Iberian coastal region of Spain * Riviera di Levante, an It ...

. On 25 June 2015, after achieving promotion to

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 ...

, he signed a new three-year deal with the club. Marí scored his first professional goal on 30 August 2015, netting his team's first in a 2–1 away defeat of

CD Tenerife Club Deportivo Tenerife, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Founded in 1922, the club plays in the Segunda División, holding home matches at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez L� ...

Manchester City

On 15 August 2016, Marí was transferred to

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

side

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

. A day later, he was loaned to

Girona FC Girona Futbol Club, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. ( ) is a Spanish professional Football team, football club based in Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Founded on 23 July 1930, the team plays in La Liga, to which they gained promotion in the 2022 ...

in a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

-long deal. In the following two campaigns, still owned by City, Marí played with

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eredivisi ...

(Dutch

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

, where he was

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

) and

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña () or simply Depor, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, that competes in the Segunda División, the ...

(Spanish second tier).

Flamengo

On 11 July 2019, Marí signed with

on a contract through 2022, for an approximate fee of €1.3 million (or R$5.5 million). He became the third Spanish player for the Brazilian club, after goalkeeper in the late 1930s and forward José Ufarte in the 1960s. He made his debut as a starter on 28 July in a Série A match against

Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas (; ''Botafogo Football and Rowing'') is a Brazilian sports club based in the neighborhood of Botafogo, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Although it competes in a number of different sports, Botafogo is mostly known ...

at the

Maracanã Stadium Maracanã Stadium (, ; named after the Maracanã River), officially known as Jornalista Mário Filho Stadium (, ; , named after Mário Filho), is an association football stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Located in the Maracanã neighbor ...

, a 3–2 win; he quickly established himself in the first team, with manager

Jorge Jesus Jorge Fernando Pinheiro de Jesus (; born 24 July 1954) is a Portuguese professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player. Most recently he was the manager of Saudi Professional League, Saudi P ...

pairing him with

Rodrigo Caio Rodrigo Caio Coquette Russo (born 17 August 1993), known as Rodrigo Caio, is a Brazilian football coach and former player who played as a centre-back. He is the current assistant coach of Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Flamengo. Player ca ...

. Marí scored his first goal for the ''Mengão'' on 25 August 2019 with a volley inside the box in a 3–0 away victory over

Ceará Sporting Club Ceará Sporting Club, or simply Ceará, () is a Brazilian Football League Teams, Brazilian professional football club from the city of Fortaleza, capital city of the States of Brazil, Brazilian state of Ceará. Founded on June 2, 1914, Cear ...

. His second in the league came on 7 September, this time with a header against

Avaí FC Avaí Futebol Clube () is a Brazilian football team from Florianópolis in Santa Catarina, founded on 1 September 1923. Their home stadium is Estádio Aderbal Ramos da Silva, also known as Ressacada, with a capacity of 17,800. They play in b ...

in a 3–0 win at

Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha Arena BRB Mané Garrincha, formerly Estádio Nacional de Brasília Mané Garrincha, also known as ''Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha'', ''Estádio Nacional de Brasília'', or simply ''Mané Garrincha'', is a football stadium and multipurpose a ...

. In November, he became the first Spaniard to win the

, the major South American club competition. Marí made headlines for wearing the number 24 in the Copa Libertadores, as the number is subject to a homophobic taboo in Brazil.

Arsenal

On 29 January 2020, Marí joined English

club

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

on loan until the end of the season, with an option for Arsenal to make the deal permanent in the summer. Arsenal's technical director Edu said: "Pablo is an experienced player who will provide us with additional defensive quality. We have been monitoring Pablo’s career for a while and we are very pleased to have reached agreement with Flamengo for him to join us initially until the end of our season." Marí made two appearances for Arsenal, a 2–0

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

win at

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

and a 1–0 Premier League win at home to

West Ham West Ham is a district in East London, England and is in the London Borough of Newham. It is an inner-city suburb located east of Charing Cross. The area was originally an ancient parish formed to serve parts of the older Manor of Ham, a ...

, before the season was suspended due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On 17 June 2020, Marí was injured playing in a 3–0 defeat at Manchester City, in the first game of the league restart. Arsenal confirmed post-match he would miss the remainder of the

with a "significant" ankle injury. Despite this injury, Arsenal announced on 24 June that Marí would join the club permanently for an undisclosed fee on 1 July, upon the opening of the summer transfer window. On 3 December 2020, Marí scored his first goal for Arsenal in a 4–1 home win over

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English, is an Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the f ...

in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. Mari only made 28 appearances for the club. Mari appeared in the Amazon Original sports

docuseries Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. * Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

'' All or Nothing: Arsenal'', which documented the club activities during the 2021–22 season.

Loans to Udinese and Monza

On 20 January 2022, Marí joined

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

on loan until the end of the 2021–22 season. On 11 August, he was loaned to newly promoted Serie A side

Monza Monza (, ; ; , locally ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the Lambro, River Lambro, a tributary of the Po (river), River Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the province of Mo ...

. Marì made his debut for Monza on 14 August, as a starter in a 2–1 Serie A defeat to

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

Monza

On 4 May 2023, Monza signed Marí on a permanent deal after they activated his release clause after they secured safety following their 1–1 draw at home to

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

Fiorentina

On 28 January 2025, Marí signed for fellow Italian club

on a permanent deal. His arrival meant that he reunited with his former manager at

Raffaele Palladino Raffaele Palladino (; born 17 April 1984) is an Italian professional football coach and former player who was most recently the head coach of club Fiorentina. Club career Palladino started his senior career at Sporting Benevento, before joinin ...

Personal life

Marí and his wife Veronica Chacon have a son, Pablo Jr. (b. 2018).

Stabbing

On 27 October 2022, Marí was stabbed and injured at a

Carrefour Carrefour Group, S.A. (, ), is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, Essonne, Massy, France. It operates a chain of hypermarkets, grocery stores and convenience stores. By 2024, the group had 14,000 ...

supermarket in

Assago Assago ( sˈsaːɡo Milanese: ''Assagh'' ˈsɑːk ''Sagh'' ɑːk is a town and ''comune'' of 9 326 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Milan, in the northern Italian region of Lombardy. It is home of the headquarters of Nestlé's Italian ...

Metropolitan City of Milan The Metropolitan City of Milan (; , ) is a Metropolitan cities of Italy, metropolitan city (not to be confused with the Milan metropolitan area, metropolitan area) in the Lombardy region of Italy. It is the second most populous metropolitan ci ...

. He was taken to hospital conscious and not in a serious condition. Monza's CEO

Adriano Galliani Adriano Galliani (born 30 July 1944) is an Italian entrepreneur and football executive who is the CEO of club Monza. He is also a senator for Forza Italia. He is known for being former vice-chairman and CEO of AC Milan from 1986 to 2017 ...

stated: "His life is not in danger, he should recover quickly". A man was killed during the attack and four others were injured. The perpetrator was a man with mental health problems.

Career statistics

Honours

Flamengo *

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (; English: "Brazilian Championship A Series"), commonly referred to as the Brasileirão (; English: "Big Brazilian" or "Great Brazilian"), the Série A or the Brazilian Série A (to distinguish it from the I ...

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 ...

Arsenal *

: 2019–20 Individual *

Team of the Tournament:

* Campeonato Brasileiro Série A Team of the Year: 2019

References

External links

Pablo Marí
at the AC Monza website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mari, Pablo 1993 births Living people People from Ribera Baixa Footballers from the Province of Valencia Spanish men's footballers Men's association football central defenders RCD Mallorca B players RCD Mallorca players Gimnàstic de Tarragona footballers Manchester City F.C. players Girona FC players NAC Breda players Deportivo de La Coruña players CR Flamengo footballers Arsenal F.C. players Udinese Calcio players AC Monza players ACF Fiorentina players Segunda División B players La Liga players Segunda División players Eredivisie players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Copa Libertadores–winning players Premier League players Serie A players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in England Spanish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Stabbing survivors 21st-century Spanish sportsmen