Building upon an impressive 2016-2017 season that saw him crowned a domestic and European champion, Real Madrid left-back Marcelo is currently enjoying a blistering run of form that hasn’t gone unnoticed by his peers nor on social media where an astonishing clip of the Brazilian’s control and the ability to trap a ball from long range in his team’s Champions League quarter-final first-leg victory against Bayern Munich last week went viral.
Closing in on an unprecedented fourth winner’s medal in Europe’s elite tournament, his third on the trot, the prospect of becoming his country’s most successful player ever in the competition remains a realistic possibility too while a starting berth in Russia this summer for the national team at the World Cup is a cert.
Asked about his player by Brazilian journalists, in the build-up to a return home leg with the German champions, head coach Zinedine Zidane heaped praise on Marcelo. “Everyone has seen what [he] can do with the ball.” The Frenchman began. “He’s contributed to the history of this great club and has already been here ten years” he went on. “It’s also important that one contributes enough to the group and it’s really good to have him here with us as a person and a player” it was concluded.
Just moments before, the same reporters had prompted captain Sergio Ramos to speak on the importance of a player who has lifted 18 trophies in Spain thus far. “Marcelo has a thousand anecdotes.” He laughed. “Real Madrid educated him as a professional and as a person. He’s won almost everything in football and is a vital part of a team. I hope that we can enjoy these last years together” it was warmly declared of a colleague with whom, as the pair arrived at the Bernabeu a year apart as teenage promises in the mid-00’s, Ramos shares a great friendship in addition to an array of silverware.
Demonstrated by a low, crisp volley that levelled the score in Munich after his own error had paved the way for Joshua Kimmich to put the Bavarians ahead, one would suspect that Ramos’ hopes of further joint conquests together will be realised as Marcelo, still yet to mark his 30th birthday, shows few signs of diminishing ability nor appetite for success.
