Dirk Antoon Nico Marcellis (born 13 April 1988) is a Dutch former

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 played as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. After a non-playing period at PSV, Marcellis fought back at AZ and became one of its important players. After suffering from injuries, he signed with

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 ...

in January 2015. He signed with

PEC Zwolle Prins Hendrik Ende Desespereert Nimmer Combinatie Zwolle, commonly known as PEC Zwolle, is a Dutch professional football club based in Zwolle, Netherlands. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football. They have played in the Ered ...

after NAC was relegated. He retired in 2018 due to a severe knee injury.

Club career

PSV

Born in

Horst aan de Maas Horst aan de Maas (; ) is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands, in the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. In 2010 the municipalities Sevenum and part of Meerlo-Wanssum joined the municipality. ...

, Marcellis began his professional career at PSV. Despite being short for a central defender, Marcellis worked his way up the ladder at the club, and eventually played his way in the starting line-up, forming a confident pair with Mexican defender

Carlos Salcido Carlos Arnoldo Salcido Flores (; born 2 April 1980) is a Mexican former professional footballer. He started his career as a centre-back and played most of it as left-back, then converted to defensive midfielder and ended it as centre-back. He ...

. It was then that Marcellis was first really noticed by the bigger audience. He managed himself quite comfortably in the PSV defence, and almost effortlessly replaced the highly rated Brazilian central defender

Alex Alex is a given name. Similar names are Alexander, Alexandra, Alexey or Alexis. People Multiple * Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Cook (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Forsyth (disambiguation), multiple people * Al ...

, who went back to Chelsea after being loaned by PSV for several seasons. On 30 July 2009, Marcellis scored a

last-minute goal The term "last-minute goal" is used in sport, primarily association football, to describe a goal scored very late in a game, usually one that affects the outcome of the game. The definition of a "last-minute goal" commonly used is one scored eith ...

against

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

n side

PFC Cherno More Varna Cherno More () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in the city of Varna, which currently competes in Bulgaria's primary football competition, the First League. Founded on 3 March 1913, as an association football branch ...

to help his team to a 1–0 home win in a third qualifying round game of the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. He transferred to AZ after they sold their striker

Jeremain Lens Jeremain Marciano Lens (born 24 November 1987) is a Dutch former professional footballer. He was a versatile attacking player, known for his pace and stamina, primarily being used as a winger or a striker, but he could also successfully play as ...

to PSV.

AZ

On 21 May 2010, he was involved with the deal with

. Lens went to PSV and AZ contracted Marcellis. After a non-playing period at PSV, Marcellis fought back at AZ and became one of the more reliable defenders in the league. Unfortunately he injured his knee in May 2013 and as a result he missed the whole 2013–14 season. After his contract expired in July 2014, he was released. However, in October 2014, he was given an opportunity to earn a new contract with the Alkmaar side by signing an amateur deal. He returned as a substitute in the match against

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

on 14 December 2014.

NAC Breda

On 31 December 2014, it was announced that Marcellis had signed with

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 ...

side

until the end of the season.Marcellis nieuwe aanwinst NAC
(Dutch). 31 December 2014. Upon arrival he was named captain by trainer

Robert Maaskant Robert Patrick Maaskant (; born 10 January 1969) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of club Helmond Sport. Club career Maaskant played for Go Ahead Eagles, Emmen, Motherwell, Zwolle and Excelsior. ...

International career

Youth

After impressing with PSV both in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

and

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

, where he played solid games against

Dimitar Berbatov Dimitar Ivanov Berbatov (; born 30 January 1981) is a Bulgarian former professional footballer who played as a striker. Known for his technique and ball control, Berbatov is regarded as one of the greatest Bulgarian players of all time. He cap ...

and

Adrian Mutu Adrian Mutu (; born 8 January 1979) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player. During his playing career, he was deployed as a forward or an attacking midfielder. Mutu started his career playing two years for Argeș Pite� ...

, Marcellis caught the eye of not only Dutch football fans but also the Netherlands U-21 coach

Foppe de Haan Foppe Geert de Haan (, born 26 June 1943) is a Dutch football coach. He is known for his long association with Frisian club Heerenveen. De Haan was the manager of the Tuvalu national team during 2011 and then rejoined Heerenveen's youth prog ...

. De Haan almost immediately included Marcellis in the squad and let him make his debut for the Netherlands U-21. Marcellis didn't disappoint by playing very solidly in defence, game after game. Not only on his preferred place in central defence but at times also as a right back.

2008 Beijing Summer Olympics

He was selected for the Netherlands Olympic squad and was absolute first choice central defender during the entire run-up to the Olympics, where he made a confident impression, seldom making a mistake. He played in all the group games, where the Dutch barely qualified for the quarter finals, coming second on points. He also played the quarter-final against

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, where they were eliminated. After the full 90 minutes and extra time had resulted in a 1–1 draw, they surprisingly lost 2–1.

Senior

He received his first call-up under national team coach

Bert van Marwijk Lambertus van Marwijk (; born 19 May 1952) is a Dutch Association football, football manager who is a member of the supervisory board for MVV Maastricht. As a player, he played for the Go Ahead Eagles, AZ Alkmaar, AZ, MVV Maastricht, MVV and For ...

for the

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oc ...

matches against

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. He made his debut on 11 October 2008, against Iceland.

Career statistics

Honours

PSV *

: 2007–08 *

Johan Cruijff Shield The Johan Cruyff Shield (, ) is a football trophy in the Netherlands named after Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, also often referred to as the Dutch Super Cup. The winner is decided in one match only, played by the winner of the national football ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

AZ *

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; ), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organised by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Outside the N ...

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Marcellis, Dirk 1988 births Living people People from Horst aan de Maas Men's association football defenders Dutch men's footballers Netherlands men's international footballers PSV Eindhoven players AZ Alkmaar players NAC Breda players PEC Zwolle players Eredivisie players Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for the Netherlands Footballers from Limburg (Netherlands)