Article body analysed
Join The Club for quick access. Enter your email below and we'll send confirmation plus sign you up to our newsletter.
By submitting your information you agree to the
Terms & Conditions
and
Privacy Policy
and are aged 16 or over.
Your membership journey starts here.
Keep exploring and earning more as a member.
Football Quizzes Quick quizzes for
football fans. Football Crosswords Football-themed crossword challenges.
Explore your membership benefits.
Find the subscription that suits you
We’ve highlighted
the subscriptions our members get the most value from.
The Brazilian icon returned to his former club in 2023
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member features. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Five times a week Four Four Two Daily Fantastic football content straight to your inbox! From the latest transfer news, quizzes, videos, features and interviews with the biggest names in the game, plus lots more. Once a week . .. And it’s LIVE! Sign up to our FREE live football newsletter, tracking all of the biggest games available to watch on the device of your choice. Never miss a kick-off! Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. When a player returns to their boyhood club at the end of a prestigious career, it is often a mere exercise in nostalgia. It’s a chance for the club to sell more shirts and tickets, while the player can wind down in a familiar setting. But when Marcelo made a romantic return to Fluminense in 2023, 16 years after he left the club to join Real Madrid, he would get a dream ending to his career.
“After a short spell at Olympiacos, I felt I owed that to Fluminense, ” Marcelo tells Four Four Two when reflecting on his return to his first club. “I felt I had to go back – not necessarily to win a title, but because everything the club did for me was extraordinary. It gave me the foundations, an education in every sense, and the possibility of becoming what I became.
“When I returned, the feelings were the same – the affection of the people, the atmosphere, the passion. There were around 10 people who’d worked with me in the youth teams who were still there. “It was a dream to wear the Fluminense shirt again and winning the Libertadores was the perfect ending to the story. To win it at the Maracana was spectacular, too. ” The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week. That Libertadores victory came in November 2023, with a 2-1 win over Boca Juniors at the iconic Rio venue and meant that Marcelo became just the 12th player to win both the Champions League and the Copa Libertadores. And the left-back’s celebrations were worthy of such an accomplishment. “It felt like an authentic carnival, ” the 37-year-old adds. “There was an open-top bus, the celebration began at 8am and I had woken up at 7am, still tired because the day before we’d been drinking.
“I thought, ‘Today I’m not drinking anything. ’ I had a calm breakfast, but by 8. 10am we were back at it again! It was an incredible party. “A very special day because of all the places we went through. I’m from Rio de Janeiro, so travelling around my city, through the streets I used to walk as a child, was emotional. Those were my origins, my roots. “The bus moved through different areas and my mind kept going back to those memories. At one point, I saw three friends I’d studied with in the crowd. That was incredible. ” For more than a decade, Joe Mewis has worked in football journalism as a reporter and editor. Mewis has had stints at Mirror Football and Leeds Live among others and worked at Four Four Two throughout Euro 2024, reporting on the tournament. In addition to his journalist work, Mewis is also the author of four football history books that include times on Leeds United and the England national team. Now working as a digital marketing coordinator at Harrogate Town, too, Mewis counts some of his best career moments as being in the iconic Spygate press conference under Marcelo Bielsa and seeing his beloved Leeds lift the Championship trophy during lockdown. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
Four Four Two is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury,
Bath
BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.
Please login or signup to comment
Please wait. ..