What happened to Rafa Márquez? The five-time World Cup defender

Just over two years have passed since Rafael Márquez Álvarez (02/13/1979, Zamora, Michoacán, Mexico) hung up his boots after the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In Russian lands, the Kaiser of Michoacán left his name written on the history: entered the select group of footballers who have played in five different World Cups. Márquez shares this record with the German Lothar matthaus and he is also mexican Antonio Total Carbajal (Buffon was called up in France 1998, but had no minutes). Of course, the former Barça defender is the only one who has held the captaincy in all of them.

Emblem of Mexican soccer, Rafa Márquez played in the Atlas, Monaco, Barcelona, ​​New York Red Bulls, Club León and Hellas Verona. In the first Mexican team he played his last seasons before retiring. Like so many other historical footballers, the one from Michoacán has also made the leap to the benches: This same summer he returned to Spain and is training the RSD Alcalá Cadet. Márquez will thus complete his practices for the title of UEFA Pro coach. The first Mexican soccer hero of the 21st century still has much to contribute.

From the Atlas of Guadalajara to Europe

Zamora is a city located in the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, one of the thirty-two states that make up Mexico. Rafa Márquez was born and raised there, in a place known for the cultivation of blackberry and strawberry and that it was named by the discoverers in honor of the Spanish city. However, his first professional team was the Atlas of Guadalajara, in the neighboring state of Jalisco. With the red and black jacket debuted in the First Division of Mexico on October 19, 1996 and was established in the starting eleven in the 1997-98 season. Then he played 39 games and in the next, 1998-99, he had such an outstanding performance that he had the opportunity to make the leap to Europe.

“I was so ignorant at the time that They asked me if I wanted to go to Monaco and I didn't know where that place was. They explained to me that it was France but not from France. I just asked if it was Europe, they said yes and then I said 'of course I'm going!' ”, Explained Márquez in an interview with the Argentine-American journalist Andrés Cantor. Thus, in the 1999-00 campaign the Mexican defender crossed the pond to get on the luxurious ship from Monaco. With the Rouge et Blanc played for four seasons, adding more than a hundred games, scoring five goals and being a key part of a team that he won the League, the League Cup and the French Super Cup.

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Rafa Márquez poses with the Monaco jersey on August 10, 1999.

During the summer of 2003, thanks to his extraordinary performance, Márquez – the sports chronicles of the time tell us – had half of Europe behindBut he decided on a club that was starting a project from scratch, with a new president and coach: Barcelona.

Rafa Márquez was the second signing of Joan Laporta

And it is that in the summer of 2003, Barcelona faced an electoral process that is remembered for being the one that has had the greatest number of presidential candidates, with a total of six. Among the Lluís Bassat, Jaume Llauradó, Josep Martínez-Rovira, Josep Maria Minguella and Jordi Majó slipped a young lawyer, whose client was -and friend- to Johan Cruyff, and that he promised to give the best years of his life to Barcelona: Joan Laporta. With a young project that aimed to renew the Barça squad and the club itself, Laporta won the elections and inaugurated the summer of signings with the arrival of the Turkish goalkeeper. Rüstü Recber. Although this incorporation had a great media impact in Turkey and Germany, it did not excite the Barça fans too much, who did experience with greater emotion the arrival of one of the best center-backs in Europe: the Kaiser of Michoacán.

Rafa Márquez, second signing of Joan Laporta, was introduced as a new Barça player on July 9, 2003 in a press conference in which the president himself, the coach Frank Rijkaard and the sports director Txiki Begiristain were present. “Márquez's option is the one that most guarantees the controlled output of the ball. We needed a player with these characteristics, because everything has to start in defense”, pointed out Begiristain about the Mexican defender who at that time He was 24 years old and was already captain of his national team, with which he had been international on 35 occasions.

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Presentation of Rafa Márquez with Barcelona on July 9, 2003. The Mexican, along with Rijkaard, Joan Laporta and Txiki Begiristain.

That summer they also came to Barça Ronaldinho, Quaresma, Luis García, Mario and Gio van Bronckhorst, to which Edgar Davids joined in the winter market. In Rafa Márquez's first season as a Barça player, the titles did not arrive, but little by little Rijkaard was shaping a champion team. In it, of course, were also the Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernández, Víctor Valdés or Andrés Iniesta, who were part of a squad that in 2004-05 was reinforced with the signings of Samuel Eto’o, Deco, Edmilson, Giuly, Belleti … They will remember them because, then yes, the titles arrived.

Márquez, who was already an icon in his country, played for seven seasons for Barcelona, ​​surpassing 30 games per season in all of them. It was a fixed. Puyol's perfect match. Commanding a team full of stars alongside Tiburon Puyol in defense, the Mexican central defender ended up winning. four Leagues, three Spanish Super Cups, a King's Cup, a European Super Cup, a Club World Cup and, most importantly, two Champions League.

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Rafa Márquez lifts one of the two Champions League he won with Barcelona.

And it is that Rafa Márquez He was part of two of the best Barça in history, that of Rijkaard and Pep Guardiola, already with Messi as the spearhead. Under the orders of the Catalan coach, the Kaiser of Michoacán completed the sextet and left his name written in the history of football. It would not be the only time.

Goodbye, Barça; hello New York Red Bulls

The first Mexican footballer to wear the Barcelona shirt said goodbye to the Barça club in July 2010, after rescinding the contract that bound him to the entity until 2012. “This is not a goodbye, but a goodbye, here I have lived the best moments of my soccer career. I will be culé until death”Said Márquez in his farewell, just before leaving Spain for the United States. In MLS, Márquez played with the jersey of the New York Red Bulls from 2010 to 2012. Then, in December 2012, he signed for the Lion of his country. With green bellies he was proclaimed champion of the MX League, thus becoming the first Mexican to win three tournaments in three different countries: Monaco (France), Barcelona (Spain) and León (Mexico). Again the Kaiser of Michoacán left his name written in history.

Rafa Márquez, who in August 2014 still had gasoline for a while, decided to return to Europe that summer. His destination was Hellas Verona from Serie A. In the Italian team he played almost forty games before return to the first team of his professional life: the Atlas. Sixteen years after his departure, in 2015, the one from Michoacán returned to the club that saw him born as a star. With the red-black elastic he played three more seasons, until in 2017-18 he announced that he would retire at the end of the campaign. On April 29, 2018, in Pachuca, Márquez played his last game as a club player.

It was not the last of his career as a footballer because the Zamora center-back was going to write his name again on the highest step in football history before hanging up his boots definitively.

Rafa Márquez, a period player for Mexico

When someone thinks of the Tricolor there are three or four players that come to mind: Hugo Sánchez, Antonio Carbajal, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, and, of course, Rafa Márquez. Considered the first hero of Mexican soccer in the 21st century, the Kaiser of Michoacán played 149 games for Mexico, scoring 18 goals and winning a FIFA Confederations Cup, a CONCACAF and two Gold Cups. His name will always be among the greatest in the world. history thanks to your participation in five World Cups: Korea and Japan 2002, Germany 2006, South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018.

And it is that, after Márquez announced his retirement in the Atlas, the Mexican coach Juan Carlos Osorio summoned him to attend the World Cup in Russia. There, specifically in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, made history by jumping onto the pitch, aged 39, in Mexico's victory over Germany on June 17, 2018.

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Rafa Márquez played on June 17, 2018 in Mexico's victory over Germany in Russia 2018, thus adding five World Cup appearances.

After this historic record, which he shares with his compatriot Carbajal and the legendary Matthäus, the Kaiser of Michoacán hung up his boots. Now he is embarking on a new path on the bench.

The always elegant Rafa Márquez – on and off the pitch – He has returned to Spain this summer and is training Cadet A of RSD Alcalá. In this way, you will complete the practices you need to obtain the title of UEFA Pro coach. As long as you do half as well as a player, there is a coach for a while …