MARCELO MORETTO

'Marcelo Moretto de Souza' (born May 10th, 1978 in El Dorado, Mato Grosso do Sul), is a Brazilian football goalkeeper who currently plays for AEK Athens FC in the Super League Greece.

Contents

Career in Brazil

Arrival in Portugal

Vitória de Setúbal

Jump to Benfica

External Links

Career in Brazil

Moretto played for several years in his homecountry, Brazil. He represented São José, Portuguesa dos Desportos, Londrina, Sport Recife, Brasiliense and 15 de Novembro.

Arrival in Portugal

In 2003, aged 25, Moretto decided to try his luck in Portugal. He represented Salgueiros, at the time playing at the Liga de Honra (the second level football competition of the country), and made a very good first impression during the team's pre-season matches. However, facing serious economical crisis, Salgueiros was relegated to the Portuguese Second Division B (North zone) and lost all of its professional players. Forced to look for another club to play in, Moretto joined FC Felgueiras (at the time playing in the Portuguese Liga de Honra as well). There he played for 8 matches, conceding a total of 10 goals. Nevertheless, Moretto caught the attention of other Portuguese clubs.

Vitória de Setúbal

In January 2005, the keeper was close to play for Estoril-Praia and FC Penafiel (both Superliga teams at the time), but ended up in Vitória de Setúbal (also playing in the Portuguese Superliga) to replace Ricardo Batista (who had signed for the English Premier League team Fulham) after signing a two and a half year contract. In Vitória FC Moretto met success for the first time. He soon became the coach's first option while the team performed above all expectations, winning Portugal's second most important trophy, the Portuguese Cup after beating the giants SL Benfica in the final.
In 2005/2006 Moretto started off the season in Setúbal. The team performed well during the season's first half, with Moretto playing for 17 matches and suffering only as little as 5 goals. After enjoying a remarkable success, Vitória was struck by the resignation of their coach Norton de Matos and a few other players due to unpayed wages. The year 2005 ended with Moretto being the number one goalkeeper of all European leagues, with the less number of goals conceded per minute played.

Jump to Benfica

During the 2005 Christmas and New Year break in Portugal, a lot was spoken in the press about Moretto's possible transfer to SL Benfica or FC Porto. In a controversial move, Moretto followed his will and picked Benfica to be his new club after explaining the allegedly «bad behaviour» of both the player's representant and the FC Porto chairmen. Porto officially denied immediate interest in the player.
The transfer cost Benfica 1 million Euros and Moretto signed for five and a half years.
Benfica's interest gained strength as Moreira (one of the team's keepers) suffered an injury that would keep him off the pitch for the remainder of the season. Quim, the team's other goalkeeper also suffered and injury, leaving the team with only the junior unexperienced Rui Nereu to play both the Superliga and the Champions League. Upon his arrival, he immediately became Ronald Koeman's number one choice between the posts, even with Quim fully recovered.
Throughout the 2005/06 season, Moretto played for 18 occasions on the Portuguese League, once for the Portuguese Cup and 4 times for the UEFA Champions League, against reigning european champions Liverpool FC, conceding no goals, and FC Barcelona where he stopped Ronaldinho's penalty among other actions. The Brazilian goalie did not have an easy time after joining Benfica: although he performed many difficult saves, he also suffered concentration breaches that greatly undermined his overall performances. As a result, upon the departure of Koeman and arrival of his replacement, Fernando Santos, Moretto was relegated to the role of substitute goalie, with Quim again taking over the nets. During the season he played only one match, splitting the subs bench with the other substitute goalie Moreira during the other matches.
On July 13th 2007, Moretto agreed to join AEK Athens FC on a loan. The Greek team has the option to purchase the player at the end of the loan period.

External Links

★ UEFA Bio