Mario Amare Bilate (born 16 July 1991) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a striker for Smitshoek.

Playing career

XerxesDZB

Bilate broke into the

XerxesDZB XerxesDZB is a Dutch association football, football club based in Rotterdam. History The club was founded in 1904 as RFC Xerxes and their first regional championship was won in 1907. After a second championship in 1911 the club was promoted to t ...

first team in March 2010 and scored seven goals in the ten games he appeared in. His form was impressive enough to win him a move to

Sparta Rotterdam Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top flig ...

, where he had played earlier as a youth.

Sparta Rotterdam

Bilate joined

in January 2011 on a two-and-a-half-year deal. He made his competitive debut on 7 August 2011 in a 1–0 win over

Fortuna Sittard Fortuna Sittard (; ) is a professional football club from the municipality of Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 12,500 capacity Fortuna Sittard Stadion and features in the Eredivisie. The club was establi ...

. In the summer of 2012 Bilate then signed a contract extension to keep him at the club until 2015.

Dundee United

Bilate was released from his Sparta Rotterdam contract a year early and signed a two-year contract with

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

in July 2014. Bilate had originally been set to join

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

champions Willem II but the move fell through at the last minute after the

board decided they wanted a transfer fee. He made his debut as a substitute in Dundee United's opening match of the 2014–15 season, a 3–0 win against

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

on 10 August 2014. He then scored the winning goal on his home debut three days later, in a 1–0 victory over

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

, again after coming off the bench. He was released from his contract at

Tannadice Tannadice Park, officially known as The CalForth Construction Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland. It is the home ground of Dundee United F.C., who have played at Tannadice since the club was founded as Du ...

in November 2015, after making only two appearances in the 2015–16 season.

Return to the Netherlands

Bilate signed a one-year contract with

Den Bosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...

on 30 June 2016, with an option for another year. On 7 June 2017, Bilate signed a one-year deal with an option for an extra season with Emmen. One year later, in June 2018, he signed a one-year contract with

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional association football, football club based in Waalwijk. They currently play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football, following relegation from the Eredivisie i ...

with an option for one more season. He was promoted to the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

with RKC in the 2018–19 season. On 11 September 2020, Bilate was involved in a swap deal between RKC and

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eredivisi ...

, with him leaving for the latter and Finn Stokkers moving to the former. His contract was not extended after the 2021–22 season, effectively making him a free agent. According to him, he had been injured for six months due to mismanagement within the club, and had to find out through media reports that his contract had not been extended. On 30 August 2022, Bilate signed a one-year contract with

ADO Den Haag Alles Door Oefening Den Haag (), commonly known by the abbreviated name ADO Den Haag (), is a Dutch association football club from the city of The Hague. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation ...

. On 21 July 2023, Bilate signed a two-year contract with

Kozakken Boys Kozakken Boys () is a Dutch football club based in Werkendam. It competes in the , the fourth tier, and second highest amateur league of Dutch football. Formed as Steeds Voorwaarts Werkendam (SVW) in 1932, it adopted its current name in 1935. K ...

in the third-tier

Tweede Divisie Tweede Divisie (; ) is the highest amateur (and historically the lowest professional) football league in the Netherlands. It was established in 1956, together with the Eredivisie and the Eerste Divisie. Between 1956 and 1960 and between 1962 and 19 ...

Personal life

Bilate's father, Amare, is

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

n, he met Mario's

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

mother Marina in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

when Amare was enrolled in the

Moscow Conservatory The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory () is a higher musical educational institution located in Moscow, Russia. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in musical performance and musical research. Th ...

to become a

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematics * Conductor (ring theory) * Conductor of an abelian variety * Cond ...

and Marina was a student of singing at

Gnessin State Musical College The Gnessin State College of Music () and Gnessin Russian Academy of Music () comprise a music school in Moscow.Moisenko, Rena. (1949) ''Realist Music: 25 Soviet Composers,'' London: Meridian Book, Ltd. History Originally known as the Gnessi ...

. The family moved to the Netherlands when Mario was one-and-a-half-years old.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bilate, Mario 1991 births Living people Footballers from Moscow Men's association football forwards Russian men's footballers Dutch men's footballers Russian people of Ethiopian descent Dutch people of Russian descent Dutch people of Ethiopian descent Russian emigrants to the Netherlands XerxesDZB players Sparta Rotterdam players Dundee United F.C. players FC Den Bosch players FC Emmen players RKC Waalwijk players NAC Breda players ADO Den Haag players Kozakken Boys players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Scottish Professional Football League players Russian expatriate men's footballers Dutch expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Moscow Conservatory alumni 21st-century Russian sportsmen 21st-century Dutch sportsmen