The Brazilian attacker Mark Paulo, announced this Monday as a new player of the Atlético de Madrid
, is a rough diamond yet to be polished that exploded in the lower categories of the Fluminense and that now, at 20, jumps to European football with versatility as his main weapon.
Born in Sao Gonçalo, a municipality in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, Marcos Paulo Costa do Nascimento He joined the ranks of the Rio Tricolor when he was only ten years old.
At the base of ‘Flu’ he became the maximum exponent of the baptized golden generation of 2001 of the Rio de Janeiro club, together with the forward Joao Pedro, today at the English Watford and with whom he showed enormous harmony on the pitch.
Soon he began to be surveyed by several of the main clubs in the Old Continent. His dual nationality, Brazilian and Portuguese, With what he would not occupy an extra-community place, he became another attraction for his signing, in addition to his technical quality and verticality.
His natural position is that of midfielder, that of a classic 10, although he can play with ease both on the far right and on the left.
Despite its strong wingspan, supported by its 1.86 meters high, it treasures an enormous quality and a wide variety of resources in building the team game. In addition, he knows how to hold his back and swing the ball with the rest of his teammates.
His rise in the carioca squad was meteoric until in 2019 he reached the first team, with only 18 years. That year was already fundamental to guarantee the permanence of the team in the First Division of the Brazilian Championship.
Since then he has added 79 games and 14 goals with the tricolor shirt, which he leaves without having added a single title. In parallel, he was also called up for the lower categories of the Portugal team, as his ancestors are from that country and he obtained dual nationality.
In the ‘Flu’ board of directors they always saw him with the potential to be the biggest sale in the club's history. In 2018, a year before rising to the professional cast, he signed a contract with a release clause of 45 million euros.
In mid-2020, given the growing interest abroad, Fluminense tried to renew him again, as his contract ended in June 2021, but Marcos Paulo rejected all the proposals.
In the last transfer window, an exit was sought with the intention of raising a handful of millions of euros and thus reducing the hole in income caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
SECTION IN THE FLUMINENSE
Although no agreement was reached and the player signed a pre-contract with Atlético de Madrid last January. Consequently, Fluminense removed the attacker from the first team, who has since gone on to train with the U'23 team.
All in all, this Monday his “free” transfer to Atlético de Madrid was consummated. An operation at zero cost that contrasts with the 45 million euros that, for example, Real Madrid paid for Vinicius
Junior.
As if it were a consolidated star, Mark Paulo he said goodbye to the ‘Flu’ fans last Wednesday, when his contract with the Rio de Janeiro squad expired, with a message on his social networks in which he assured that he is leaving with “the certainty of duty accomplished”.
(+) This is how Marcos Paulo plays:
“I lived through glorious moments and difficult moments, but I thank God for everything that I went through. 10 ten years have passed that I will never forget. Today, that cycle ends ”, he affirmed.
“I entered as a child and I am leaving as a boy from Xerém (as Fluminense is known). I leave with the certainty of my duty accomplished and with even more dreams ”, he added.