Birthday Boys – Marquinhos and Ruben Dias

Today’s edition of Birthday Boys sees us look at two defenders. PSG’s centre back Marquinhos and Benfica’s Ruben Dias feature as the Birthday Boys today.

Marquinhos

Marquinhos has been a solid defender for PSG and turns 26 today. He’s won numerous trophies, but let’s go back and see where it all started for the Brazillian.

The defender started his career at Corinthians as a teenager making the rise from the B team to the senior team. He only featured six times that season and was on his way out on loan the next season.

Roma signed the defender on loan in the summer of 2012 for a loan fee of £1.35 million with the Italian club making the move permanent in January 2013.

He played 30 times for Roma that season having a solid partnership at the back with countryman Leandro Castan. They created a solid partnership with Roma finishing sixth in Serie A that season.

In the summer of 2013, the French League came calling for the youngster. PSG decided to sign the defender from Roma for £28 million.

In his first full season for PSG, he played 32 times and looked like a firm partner for captain and fellow Brazil team mate Thiago Silva.

The 14/15 season saw the defender reach over 40 appearances in a season for the first time in his career. The next season he played 43 times for PSG and in the 16/17 season he played more games this time appearing 44 times.

He has played over 40 appearances regulalrly since joining PSG and has been a solid defender for the club based in the French capital.

Marquinhos is approaching 50 caps for his national team and will likely get more due to him being a key player in Brazil’s back line.

He’s won many titles these include: The Copa Libertadores with Corinthians, 6x French Supercup winner, 5x French League Cup winner, 4x French Cup winner and 6x Ligue 1 champion with PSG and Copa America winner with Brazil.

Marquinhos has still got a lot of time ahead of him and hopefully he can continue playing high quality football and potentially win a coveted Champions League winners medal in the future with PSG or a different club.

Ruben Dias

The Portuguese defender turns 23 today and is a highly rated player that will a lot of teams will be trying to get his signature to play for their club. Let’s have a look how the career has unfolded so far for Dias.

Dias started his career in 2010 when he was moved into the U15 setup at Benfica. Making the rapid rise by 2015 he was playing for Benfica’s B team and two years later he would break into the senior team.

In his two seasons for Benfica B he would make 55 appearances for the team of his childhood and would prove that he had bags of potential and that he should be in the senior side.

He made over 30 appearances in his first full campaign for the senior side in the 2017/18 season scoring four times from centre-back and looked like a pure titan in defence.

In the 18/19 season, Dias played 55 times for Benfica which showed how much they relied on him being fit and well as he played nearly every game in that season.

This season, he has played 39 times and the season has been put on hold due to the Coronavirus pandemic so we won’t know just yet if the defender would have made over 50 appearances in a season for a second successive year.

In the Portuguese National team, the defender looks to have made an impact that he will likely be near the top of the team sheet due to his potential and ability. He’s played 17 times for the National team and it won’t be surprising if he reaches 100 caps for Portugal.

He’s won the UEFA Nations League with Portugal and is a Liga Nos and Portuguese Supercup winner from last season.

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