José Marcelo Ferreira (born 25 July 1973), commonly known as Zé Maria, is a retired Brazilian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player turned coach. He is currently working as head coach of club

Olbia Olbia (, ; ; ) is a city and communes of Italy, commune of 61,000 inhabitants in the Italy, Italian insular province of Sassari in northeastern Sardinia, Italy, in the historical region of Gallura. Called in the Roman age, Civita in the Middle ...

. Known for his pin-point crosses, he could play either as a

right 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 ...

right midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

, and played the vast majority of his professional career, other than in his country, in Italy's

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 ...

, where he represented three teams, mainly

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

Club career

Born in

Oeiras, Piauí Oeiras is a municipality in the Microregion of Picos, in the northeastern Brazilian State of Piauí. According to the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), its population was 37,085 ...

, Zé Maria started his professional career with Portuguesa in 1991, being loaned two times during his contract with the club. In 1995, he was selected in the Bola de Prata Brazilian League team of the year. This led to him being signed by

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 ...

in 1996. In the summer, Zé Maria moved to Italy after signing with

club

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

, playing regularly for two seasons. Subsequently, he remained in Italy, joining

. With the

Umbria Umbria ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region of central Italy. It includes Lake Trasimeno and Cascata delle Marmore, Marmore Falls, and is crossed by the Tiber. It is the only landlocked region on the Italian Peninsula, Apennine Peninsula. The re ...

ns Zé Maria had a shaky start, being loaned three times back to Brazil, during which time he won the Copa Libertadores with Palmeiras, and the Copa do Brasil with Cruzeiro. Eventually, he established himself in the Perugia starting line-up, helping his team finish 10th in his third full season whilst contributing with six goals.

Via Via or VIA may refer to the following: Arts and entertainment * ''Via'' (Volumes album), 2011 * Via (Thalia Zedek album), 2013 * VIA (music), Soviet and Russian term for a music collective Businesses and organisations * Via Foundation, a Cz ...

the

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

he and the side reached the third round of the subsequent

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

, but also suffered domestic relegation. After two seasons with giants

Inter Inter may refer to: Association football clubs * Inter Milan, an Italian club * SC Internacional, a Brazilian club * Inter Miami CF, an American club * Inter Playa del Carmen, a Mexican club * FC Inter Sibiu, a Romanian club * FC Inter Turku, ...

– playing rather regularly in his first but making only eight appearances (mostly as a substitute) in his second (with Inter winning the ''

Scudetto The ''scudetto'' (; Italian for 'little shield') is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in the previous ...

'' courtesy of the ''

Calciopoli ''Calciopoli'' () was a sports scandal in Italy's top professional association football league Serie A, and to a lesser extent, Serie B. The scandal centered on the manipulation of referee appointments to favor certain clubs during the 2004- ...

'' affair), 49 official ones overall – Zé Maria was released and joined

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 ...

club

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– ...

on a free transfer: starting the season as first-choice right-back the 33-year-old lost the position and finished with 14 league appearances, with the

Valencians Valencians ( ; ) are the native people of the Valencian Community, in eastern Spain. Since 2006, the Valencian people are officially recognised in the Valencian Statute of Autonomy as a ''nationality'' "within the unity of the Spanish nation". ...

barely avoiding relegation. Released again, Zé Maria entailed unsuccessful negotiations with several teams, reportedly

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history ...

and

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English f ...

in England, thus returning to Brazil and Portuguesa in January 2008. In August, after having rescinded his contract, he surprisingly accepted an offer from A.S.D. Città di Castello, in the Italian ''

Eccellenza The Eccellenza (, "excellence") is the fifth level (since 2014–15) of Italian football.Official ...

'' (amateur championships). Zé Maria settled in Italy after his retirement from football, at the age of 36. He subsequently founded a football school in

International career

Zé Maria gained 25

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 Java ...

for

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

over a period of five years. He was not selected for any

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

but did participate in two

FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBO ...

s, including the original in Saudi Arabia which the national team won, and one

Copa América The CONMEBOL Copa América (; known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship), often simply called the Copa America, is the top men's quadrennial association football, football tournament contested among list of men's national ass ...

(also ended in win, in

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

). In

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

Zé Maria helped the Olympic team win bronze at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, appearing in all six matches.

Managerial career

Beginnings

On 15 March 2010 Zé Maria took his first head coaching job, accepting

Serie D The Serie D () is the highest level of semi-professional football in Italy, and the fourth tier of the Italian national league system. It sits beneath the third and lowest fully professional league, Serie C, and feeds in to it through promotion ...

club

S.S.D. Group Città di Castello A solid-state drive (SSD) is a type of solid-state storage device that uses Integrated circuit, integrated circuits to store data persistence (computer science), persistently. It is sometimes called semiconductor storage device, solid-stat ...

's offer. He was then appointed manager of fourth division team F.C. Catanzaro for the 2010–11 campaign, being however removed from his post after a few months.

Tirana

On 16 June 2017, Tirana announced the signing of Zé Maria on a one-year contract. He lost his first match in charge later on 29 June, a 2–0 away loss to

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv () is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such as football, basketball, j ...

Netanya Stadium Miriam Stadium (), commonly known as The Diamond Stadium, is a multi-use stadium in Netanya, Israel. It is used as the permanent home ground of Maccabi Netanya F.C., Maccabi Netanya, and it has been used as the temporary homeground of Hapoel Ha ...

in the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League first qualifying round. Tirana was knocked out from the competition after losing the second leg. Zé Maria won his first silverware with the club later on 6 September, the 2017 Albanian Supercup, with Tirana defeating Kukësi thanks to an Erion Hoxhallari late winner. By doing so, Tirana become the first ever Albanian First Division club to win the supercup. Tirana begun the championship by recording a 1–0 home win versus Iliria Fushë-Krujë. They successfully eliminated

Besa Kavajë Besa or BESA may refer to: Arts & entertainment * ''Besa'' (newspaper), a newspaper published in Albania * ''Besa'' (TV series), a Serbian-British television series produced by Adrenalin and Red Planet Pictures * ''The Besa'', a novel by Albanian ...

4–1 on aggregate in the 2017–18 Albanian Cup first round. Tirana ended September by winning all the matches, and did so also in November, taking the lead of

Group B Group B was a set of regulations for Grand tourer, grand touring (GT) cars used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World S ...

. During his time, Zé Maria also guided Tirana to the biggest win of the season, 6–0 versus

Shkumbini Peqin Klubi i Futbollit Shkumbini Peqin is an Albanian football club based in the town of Peqin. The club's home ground is the Shkumbini Stadium and they compete in the Kategoria e Dytë. History Football was first introduced to the city of Peqin in t ...

. Tirana finished the year in the first place, conceding only one defeat, the one versus Bylis Ballsh. Zé Maria called the defeat "a shame". The team also eliminated Vllaznia Shkodër in the second round of Albanian Cup. In January 2018, Tirana brought Kenneth Muguna, Mohammed Musa and Samson Iliasu at the request of Zé Maria. In February 2018, Tirana was eliminated by Kukësi in the quarter-final of Albanian Cup. Tirana continued their winning streak, eventually finished top of Group B to qualify to promotion play-off. Later on 14 April, the team mathematically achieved promotion to top flight next season by winning 3–2 at home against Pogradeci. On 16 May, Tirana was named Albanian First Division champions after beating 2–0 the Group A winners Kastrioti Krujë. Later on 2 June, Zé Maria agreed a contract extension with the club until June 2020.

Later years

On 5 October 2022,

announced to have hired Zé Maria as a technical collaborator for the youth team. He departed from Parma in November 2024 to become the new head coach of

club

Managerial record

Honours

Player

;Flamengo *

Campeonato Carioca The Campeonato Carioca (Carioca Championship), officially known as Campeonato Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro State Championship), also commonly known as the Cariocão, is the top-flight professional state football league in the Br ...

: 1996 ;Palmeiras *

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 ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

;Cruzeiro *

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, ...

: 2000 ;Perugia *

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

;Inter Milan *

: 2005–06 *

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

: 2004–05, 2005–06 ;Brazil *

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

: Bronze Medalist

Managerial

;Tirana *

Albanian Supercup The Albanian Supercup is a single match usually at the beginning of the season between the winners of the Kategoria Superiore and Albanian Cup. Prior to 2000, Supercup final was not played when the champion team won the Double. However, after the ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Albanian First Division Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

: 2017–18

References

External links

* * * * * * {{Navboxes , title= Managerial positions , list1= {{U.S. Catanzaro managers {{CSM Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț managers {{KF Tirana managers {{Associação Portuguesa de Desportos managers 1973 births Living people Men's association football defenders Brazilian men's footballers Brazil men's international footballers 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1997 Copa América players 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup players 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup players Copa América–winning players FIFA Confederations Cup–winning players Olympic footballers for Brazil Olympic bronze medalists for Brazil Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Associação Portuguesa de Desportos players Club Sportivo Sergipe players Associação Atlética Ponte Preta players CR Flamengo footballers Parma Calcio 1913 players AC Perugia Calcio players CR Vasco da Gama players SE Palmeiras players Cruzeiro Esporte Clube players Inter Milan players Levante UD footballers Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players Serie A players La Liga players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Brazilian football managers US Catanzaro 1929 managers CSM Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț managers Gor Mahia F.C. managers KF Tirana managers Associação Portuguesa de Desportos managers Brazilian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Italy Expatriate football managers in Romania Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Romania Expatriate football managers in Kenya Expatriate football managers in Albania Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Albania Footballers from Piauí People from Oeiras, Piauí 20th-century Brazilian sportsmen