MARCOS NA IMPRENSA INTERNACIONAL

With the retirement of legendary goalkeeper Marcos, Brazilian football loses one of its great characters

The Palmeiras man has hung up his gloves after 19 years at the same club, and showed a loyalty rarely seen in the modern-day

Jan 6, 2012 9:00:00 AM

 

Divulgação

COMMENTBy Andre Baibich | Goal.com Brasil

I already feel a little unworthy of writing such a tribute to a man of Marcos' stature. Really, he deserves at least a legendary commentator like Nelson Rodrigues, or Mario Filho, to properly pay homage to his glorious career. Maybe they would still be unable to give proper credit to what the now-retired No. 12 shirt represented, and still represents to Palmeiras and to Brazilian football, but time will be the greatest judge of this remarkable player.

Marcos was a spectacular goalkeeper. Safe and always well-positioned in the final years of his career, he was agile and made brilliant saves in his prime, at the end of the 1990s and start of the 2000s.

But when I stop to think about Marcos, it is not his performances on the pitch that come first to mind.

Marcos the personality is what will stay burned into our memories, for being so different to the vast majority of footballers of our age. Like every man who decides to go against the accepted traditions and thinking of the time, the now-retired Palmeiras goalkeeper will always be remembered as a figure without equal in our football.

In an age of guarded declarations to the press, and political correctness that pervades every interview, Marcos always let himself loose in front of the microphone. His excellent performances in the World Cup coincided with seeing his Palmeiras team relegated to Serie B. Offers from European clubs flooded in, but he rejected them all to accompany the side to the second tier of Brazilian football. He did it out of loyalty, and from a sense of responsibility to the club which he represented with pride his entire career.

It was the pride and attitude of a real man, more than a goalkeeper or a footballer. It has already become a tired cliche to state, "Football needs more players like so-and-so," but it is a cliche that still rings true for a small group of stars and Marcos is part of that select group.

In an era of simple players, Marcos was complex, a character, and the great Nelson Rodrigues who chronicled Brazilian football's golden age of the 1950s and 60s would have found it a pleasure to write about this man in one of his unforgettable, timeless musings on the beautiful game.