Marcos Javier Acuña (born 28 October 1991) is an Argentine 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

left 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 ...

for

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; ), known officially as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Betano for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Argentina and the highest level of the Argentine football league system. Organ ...

club River Plate and the Argentina national team.

Club career

Early career

Acuña began his athletic training at Club Don Bosco in his hometown. At that time he played as a

left wing-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. His good performance got him noticed by scouts who invited him to perform tests at various clubs in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

. Thus, at age 13 he tried out for but did not stay at

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

and

San Lorenzo de Almagro Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro is an Argentine professional sports club based in the Boedo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is best known for its football team, which plays in the Primera División, the first tier of the Argentine foot ...

. Four years later he tried out for

Quilmes Quilmes () is a city on the coast of the Rio de la Plata, in the , on the southeast end of the Greater Buenos Aires, being some away from the urban centre area of Buenos Aires. The city was founded in 1666 and is the seat of the eponymous '' ...

, River Plate and Tigre before ultimately being taken by

Ferro Carril Oeste Club Ferro Carril Oeste, known simply as Ferro Carril Oeste or familiarly, Ferro, is an Argentine sports club from the neighbourhood of Caballito, Buenos Aires. Although many activities are hosted by the club, Ferro is mostly known for its assoc ...

. After a few seasons in Ferro's

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

, he was promoted to the first team. He made his debut in 2009 in a match in the

Primera B Nacional Primera Nacional (usually called simply Nacional B, (English "National B Division"), and known as Primera B Nacional until the 2019–20 season) is the second division of the Argentine football league system. The competition is made up of 38 team ...

playing as a winger under coach José María Bianco. Already in the 2013–14 season he stood out for his ability to assist his peers, providing 12 assists, which caught the attention of major clubs. At Ferro, Acuña played a total of 117 matches, with 5 goals and 23 assists.

Racing Club

On 18 July 2014, Acuña moved to Racing Club for a net fee of 4,900,000 pesos for 50% of his rights, with the option to buy another 25% at $750,000. On 27 July 2014, he played his first game with the ''Academia'' in a match for the knockout phase of the

2013–14 Copa Argentina The 2013–14 Copa Argentina was the fifth edition of the Copa Argentina, and the third since the relaunch of the tournament in 2011. The competition began on October 29, 2013. Arsenal was the defending champion, but were eliminated by Instituto ...

against

San Martín de San Juan Club Atlético San Martín, mostly known as San Martín de San Juan, is an Argentine football club from the city of San Juan. The team currently plays in the Argentine Liga Profesional de Futbol, the first division of the Argentine football league ...

, in which he also scored the winning goal on a header to give Racing a 1–0 victory. Later that year he was part of Racing's championship team that won the

2014 Argentine Primera División The 2014 Torneo de Transición or Torneo Doctor Ramón Carrillo was the 124th season of top-flight professional football in Argentina. The season was scheduled to start on August 1, 2014 but was postponed after the death of Julio Grondona, pre ...

, cutting a streak of 13 years without titles for the Avellaneda side, in which Acuña played 15 games and scored two goals.

Sporting CP

On 12 June 2017, Racing president Víctor Blanco confirmed that Acuña would be leaving the club for

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

. He made his debut for the Portuguese team in a 2–0 away victory over

Desportivo Aves Clube Desportivo das Aves (), commonly known as Desportivo das Aves, or simply as Aves, was a Portuguese association football, football club based in Aves (Santo Tirso), Vila das Aves, Santo Tirso. The club was founded on 12 November 1930 and p ...

. On 15 May 2018, Acuña and several of his teammates, including coaches, were injured following an attack by around 50 supporters of Sporting at the club's training ground after the team finished third in the league and missed out on the UEFA Champions League qualification. Despite the attack, he and the rest of the team agreed to play in the Portuguese Cup final scheduled for the following weekend, eventually losing to C.D. Aves.

Sevilla

On 14 September 2020, Acuña joined Spanish club

Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...

on a four-year deal. On 7 November 2021, Acuña scored his first league goal of the 2021–22 season in the ''el gran derbi'' where Sevilla won 2–0 against Real Betis. On 13 February 2021, he extended his contract with Sevilla until 2025. During Sevilla's match at Getafe on 30 March 2024, Acuña was the victim of racist chanting from behind the coaches' benches. As a result of this chanting, Getafe were ordered to close sections of their stadium for 3 matches.

River Plate

On August 18, Sevilla and River Plate began to negotiate Acuña's transfer. The operation was closed for just over three million euros to acquire 100% of the player's economical rights, with contract running until December 2027. On August 20, Acuña was officially presented as a River reinforcement.

International career

On 15 November 2016, Acuña made his international debut with the Argentina national team in a 2018 World Cup qualifier match against

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. He was part of Argentina's squad that won the

2021 Copa América The 2021 Copa América was the 47th edition of the Copa América, the international men's association football, football championship organised by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. The tournament took place in Brazil from 13 June to ...

. Acuña represented Argentina in the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting rights in l ...

in Russia and the

2022 World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

in Qatar. He won the latter edition of the tournament, playing all games except for the semifinal against

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

in which he was suspended. In June 2024, Acuña was included in Lionel Scaloni's final 26-man Argentina squad for the

2024 Copa América The 2024 Copa América was the 48th edition of the Copa América, the quadrennial international men's association football, soccer championship organized by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. The tournament was held in the United Sta ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Racing Club *

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Sporting CP *

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 ...

: 2018–19 *

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 ...

: 2017–18, 2018–19 Sevilla *

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 ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Argentina *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Copa América The CONMEBOL Copa América (; known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship), often simply called the Copa America, is the top men's quadrennial association football, football tournament contested among list of men's national ass ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions The Finalissima or officially CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions, formerly known as European/South American Nations Cup and also called Artemio Franchi Cup, is an intercontinental football match organised by CONMEBOL and UEFA and contested by th ...

Individual *

top assist provider: 2016–17 *

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

Team of the Season: 2021–22 *

Team of the Season:

References

External links

Profile
at the Sevilla FC website {{DEFAULTSORT:Acuna, Marcos Living people 1991 births Footballers from Neuquén Province Argentine men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Argentina men's international footballers Copa América–winning players UEFA Europa League–winning players 2018 FIFA World Cup players 2019 Copa América players 2021 Copa América players 2022 FIFA World Cup players 2024 Copa América players FIFA World Cup–winning players Ferro Carril Oeste footballers Racing Club de Avellaneda footballers Sporting CP footballers Sevilla FC players Club Atlético River Plate footballers Argentine Primera División players Primera Nacional players Primeira Liga players La Liga players Argentine expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain 21st-century Argentine sportsmen