Marcelo Moretto de Souza (born 10 May 1978), known as Moretto, is a Brazilian former 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 played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Club career

Early years

Born in

Eldorado, Mato Grosso do Sul Eldorado is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul Mato Grosso do Sul ( ) is one of Federative units of Brazil, Brazil's 27 federal units, located in the southern part of the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West ...

, Moretto represented

São José Esporte Clube São José Esporte Clube, more commonly referred to as São José, is a List of football clubs in Brazil, Brazilian football club based in São José dos Campos, São Paulo (state), São Paulo. The team compete in Campeonato Paulista Série A2 ...

Associação Portuguesa de Desportos Associação Portuguesa de Desportos, commonly referred to as Portuguesa or Lusa, is a Brazilian professional Association football, football club based in the district of Pari (district of São Paulo), Pari, São Paulo, that competes in the Ca ...

Londrina Esporte Clube Londrina Esporte Clube, more commonly referred to as Londrina, is a Brazilian professional football club in Londrina, Paraná, which currently plays in Série C, the third tier of Brazilian football, after being relegated from Série B in 20 ...

Sport Club do Recife Sport Club do Recife (), commonly known as Sport Recife or simply Sport, is a Brazilian sports club, located in Recife, Pernambuco. Founded in 1905, the club currently competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the top tier of football i ...

Brasiliense Futebol Clube Brasiliense Futebol Clube, commonly referred to as simply Brasiliense, is a Brazilian professional club based in Taguatinga, Federal District, Taguatinga, Federal District (Brazil), Distrito Federal. Founded in 2000, it competes in the Campeona ...

and

Clube 15 de Novembro Clube 15 de Novembro, or 15 de Novembro (also known as 15 de Campo Bom) as they are usually called, is a Brazilian football team from Campo Bom in Rio Grande do Sul, founded on 15 November 1911. History * On 3 March 1893, the Sociedade Alem� ...

in his home country. In 2003, aged 25, he moved to Portugal, signing for

S.C. Salgueiros Sport Comércio e Salgueiros (), commonly known as simply Salgueiros, is a Portuguese multi-sports club from the city of Porto, in the northern region of the country. Its most well-known department is its football department but the multi-sport ...

in the Segunda Liga and making a very good first impression during pre-season; however, facing serious economic problems, the club was relegated to the third division and lost all of its professional players. Moretto then joined F.C. Felgueiras also in the second tier. There, he played eight matches and conceded ten goals.

Vitória Setúbal

In January 2005, Moretto moved to

Vitória F.C. Vitória Futebol Clube (), popularly known as Vitória de Setúbal, is a Portuguese professional Association football, football club based in Setúbal that used to compete in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football league system ...

of the

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

on a two-and-a-half-year contract, replacing

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

-bound Ricardo Batista. He soon became first choice while the team performed above all expectations, winning the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

after beating

S.L. Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904, as ''Sport Lisboa'', Benfica is one of the " ...

in the final. In the first part of the 2005–06 season, Moretto appeared in 17 matches and conceded only five goals; however, both Vitória coach

Luís Norton de Matos Luís Maria Cabral Norton de Matos (born 14 December 1953) is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a forward, and a manager. He amassed Primeira Liga totals of 211 matches and 36 goals over nine seasons, representing in the competition ...

and some players resigned shortly after due to unpaid wages, as he was by then the goalkeeper with the fewest goals conceded per minute in all

European leagues European Leagues (EL) is a sports organisation within association football created for growth of professional football in Europe. Its members are the professional football leagues organisations of 31 countries: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bu ...

Benfica

In December 2005, speculation arose regarding Moretto's transfer to Benfica or

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional association footbal ...

. In a controversial move, he joined the former following allegedly "bad behaviour" from both his agent and the latter club's board of directors; he agreed to a deal until June 2011, for

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

1 million. When Moretto arrived at the

Estádio da Luz The Estádio da Luz (), officially named Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, is a multi-purpose stadium located in Lisbon, Portugal. It is used mostly for association football matches, hosting the home games of Portuguese club S.L. Benfica, Ben ...

, both

José Moreira José Filipe da Silva Moreira (born 20 March 1982) is a Portuguese former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. He spent most of his career with S.L. Benfica, Benfica, app ...

and Quim were injured, so he was immediately inserted in manager

Ronald Koeman Ronald Koeman (; born 21 March 1963) is a Dutch professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the manager of the Netherlands national football team, Netherlands national team. Koeman scor ...

's starting XI. He made 23 appearances in all competitions until the end of the campaign (18 in the league, one in the cup and four in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

, conceding no goals against reigning champions

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

in the

round of 16 A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

and being voted ''

Player of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

'' in the quarter-finals first leg against

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

). Moretto did not have an easy time after joining Benfica because, alternating above-average performances with subpar ones, he suffered from the animosity of their supporters, which undermined his concentration. Following the departure of Koeman and arrival of his replacement Fernando Santos, he was relegated to the role of substitute, with Quim again becoming the starter; during 2006–07 he played only once, often splitting the bench with Moreira. On 13 July 2007, Moretto agreed to a loan at

AEK Athens F.C. A.E.K. Football Club (), known simply as A.E.K. (; ) in Greece and AEK Athens internationally, is a Greek professional football club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica, Greece. Established in Athens by Greek refugees from Constantinople in the ...

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

, with an option to make the move permanent.

Later career

On 3 August 2009, Benfica released Moretto, with the player planning to return to Brazil. Later that year he returned to Brasiliense, now in the Série B. Moretto went back to Portugal and its top flight in July 2010, signing with lowly

S.C. Olhanense Sporting Clube Olhanense (), commonly known as Olhanense, is a Portuguese sports club from Olhão, Algarve. Its Association football, football team was founded on 27 April 1912 and currently plays in the Algarve Football Association Portuguese Di ...

for two years. In the following

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

, however, he changed teams – and countries – again, joining

Arka Gdynia Morski Związkowy Klub Sportowy Arka Gdynia () is a professional football club based in Gdynia, Poland, that plays in the Ekstraklasa after winning the 2024–25 I liga. The club was founded as Klub Sportowy Gdynia in 1929. History The h ...

from Poland.

Personal life

Moretto's younger brother, André (born 1987), was also a footballer and a goalkeeper. He was under contract with Vitória de Setúbal for several years as well, but never represented the first team. Gustavo Manduca, who shared teams with him at Benfica, was Moretto's

brother-in-law A sibling-in-law is the spouse of one's sibling or the sibling of one’s spouse. More commonly, a sibling-in-law is referred to as a brother-in-law for a male sibling-in-law and a sister-in-law for a female sibling-in-law. Sibling-in-law al ...

Career statistics

Honours

Vitória Setúbal *

: 2004–05 Benfica *

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual club football competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the top two tiers of Portuguese football – the ...

: 2008–09

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Moretto, Marcelo 1978 births Living people Brazilian people of Italian descent Brazilian men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players São José Esporte Clube players Associação Portuguesa de Desportos players Londrina Esporte Clube players Sport Club do Recife players Brasiliense FC players Avaí FC players América Futebol Clube (MG) players Associação Atlética Portuguesa (RJ) players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players S.C. Salgueiros players F.C. Felgueiras players Vitória F.C. players S.L. Benfica footballers S.C. Olhanense players Super League Greece players AEK Athens F.C. players Ekstraklasa players Arka Gdynia players Miami Dade FC players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in the United States