Marcos Tavares


Marcos Magno Morales Tavares is a Brazilian footballer who plays for Maribor as a striker. He was also part of the Brazilian youth national teams. He gained Slovenian citizenship on 16 September 2013. Tavares is Maribor's all-time most capped player and top goalscorer. He is also the all-time top goalscorer of Slovenian PrvaLiga with 150 goals.

Early life

Tavares was born in Porto Alegre and spent his childhood in the city's slums with his father, a worker at Internacional, and his mother, a teacher. He is the youngest of three children and throughout his youth the family was living in poverty, sharing a one bedroom home where all five family members were sleeping in the same room and on the floor. Tavares claims he started playing football to help his family, and after spending a few years at Internacional youth selections, he was noticed by their city rivals Grêmio at the age of 13 and accepted their financial offer to switch clubs as he wanted to provide the financial means for his father to build a bigger home. However, Internacional and Grêmio are fierce city rivals who contest the Grenal derby and his father soon enough found himself unemployed.

Club career

Tavares has maintained that he was unable to manage the conflict between professional and personal life during his teenage years, and that his excessive partying, drinking and overall lack of discipline contributed to his failure to succeed in Brazil. At the age of 19 he went to Malaysia in desire for quick implementation. In the 2004 season, he played for Kedah in the Malaysian Super League, where he scored eleven league goals. When the season ended, Tavares returned to Brazil, where he played for Clube Atlético Paranaense. After that, he once again continued his career in Kedah, where he was the team's top goalscorer in the 2005–06 Malaysia Premier League with twelve goals.
After one season with Kedah, he was noticed by Roberto de Assis Moreira, who took him to Grêmio and later to Porto Alegre Futebol Clube.
In 2007, Tavares moved to Europe as he signed for Cypriot side APOEL. He scored four goals in the Cypriot Cup, but in the Cypriot League he played only five matches without scoring any goals. Because he didn't perform as the club expected, Tavares was released from APOEL in January 2008.

Maribor

While playing for APOEL, Tavares met Nilton Fernandes, who introduced him to Zlatko Zahovič, the director of football at the Slovenian football team Maribor. He signed a contract with Maribor in January 2008.
Tavares soon established himself in the team and among the fans. In the next season, he was entitled Slovenian champion with Maribor. He was the top scorer for Maribor and second in the Slovenian PrvaLiga with 15 goals, and was named the best player in the Slovenian PrvaLiga for the 2008–09 season. He also received the Guest Star 2008 prize, which purpose is to promote foreign public as an important element of Slovenian community. In the 2009–10 season, he scored ten goals in 34 league matches. In addition to this achievement he scored five goals in five cup matches and ultimately won the 2009–10 Slovenian Cup. Because of his loyalty to the club and good relations with fellow players, club officials and Maribor fans, Tavares became the team's captain in October 2009.
In September 2010 he signed a new contract with the club until the end of 2012–13 season. In the 2010–11 season, he won the league title with Maribor and was crowned as the best league goalscorer with 16 goals. In addition, he was the club's best assistant with 15 assists. For his performances during the course of the same season he was voted as the most valuable player by the Slovenian PrvaLiga players and the media. He was also selected as the most distinguished player in the season by the fans of Maribor.
He scored his tenth goal for Maribor in the official UEFA competitions on 18 July 2012 against Željezničar Sarajevo, becoming the all-time top scorer for Maribor in UEFA competitions.
In August 2012 he signed a new five-year contract with Maribor.
He was selected in the Europa League Team of the Week by the WhoScored.com website on 20 September 2012, when Maribor defeated Panathinaikos 3–0. In this match, Tavares scored his 13th goal for Maribor in UEFA competitions.
In December 2012 he was again selected as the most distinguished player of the previous season by the fans of Maribor, winning his second Purple warrior trophy. He was officially announced as the winner during the half-time of the Europa League game against Lazio on 6 December, where he later scored his 14th goal in the European competitions for Maribor. In May 2013, he was voted as one of the best strikers in the 2012–13 PrvaLiga season, alongside Nikola Nikezić and Enis Đurković. He scored 17 goals in the 2012–13 PrvaLiga season, becoming the league top goalscorer for the second time in three seasons. On 31 July 2013, Tavares scored against his former team, APOEL, in the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round. The match ended 1–1 with Tavares scoring for Maribor in the 64th minute. This was his 15th goal for Maribor in the official UEFA competitions. On 26 April 2014, Tavares scored his 117th goal for Maribor in a league match against Koper, tying with Branko Horjak on the club's all-time goalscoring table. On 7 May 2014 he became the sole record holder when he scored two second half goals in a 4–0 away win against Krka. On 26 August 2014, he scored in a Maribor's 1–0 win over Celtic in the Champions League play-off round, helping Maribor to qualify for the group stage of the competition for the first time since 1999. On 21 July 2016, he scored against Levski Sofia in the 2016–17 Europa League second qualifying round, helping Maribor to advance on away goals rule after the match in Sofia finished 1–1. On 22 April 2017, Tavares set a record for the fastest goal scored in the Slovenian top division; he scored after eight seconds in a match against Domžale. On 16 August 2017, Tavares scored his 25th goal for Maribor in UEFA competitions in a 2–1 defeat against Hapoel Be'er-Sheva. On 25 November 2017, Tavares scored his 130th goal in the Slovenian top division, tying himself with Štefan Škaper as the all-time top goalscorer in the Slovenian PrvaLiga. On 2 December 2017, he became the sole record holder after scoring a winning goal against Gorica in a 2–1 victory. A few days later, on 6 December 2017, Tavares scored his first goal in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League in a 1–1 draw against Sevilla. On 25 August 2019, he scored his 200th goal for Maribor in all competitions during a league game against Bravo.

Career statistics

Honours

Club

;Kedah
;APOEL
;Maribor
;Brazil U17
He met his wife Leticia when he was 18 through a mutual friend and the pair has four children together. Tavares is multilingual, speaking three languages; Portuguese, Slovene and English. In Maribor he and his wife founded a humanitarian and religious society Kairos which is responsible for helping the people in need. He is also a minister.