is a 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

centre-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 ...

. Born in Brazil, he represented Japan at international level.

Club career

Born in

Palmeira d'Oeste Palmeira d'Oeste is a municipality in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The city has a population of 9,227 inhabitants and an area of 319.2 km2. Palmeira d'Oeste belongs to the Mesoregion of São José do Rio Preto. Media In telecommunicat ...

, Brazil to an

Italian Brazilian Italian Brazilians (, ) are Brazilians of full or partial Italy, Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to Brazil during the Italian diaspora, or more recent Italian-born people who've settled in Brazil. Italian Brazilians ...

mother and second generation

Japanese Brazilian are Brazilian citizens who are nationals or naturals of Japanese ancestry or Japanese immigrants living in Brazil or Japanese people of Brazilian ancestry. Japanese immigration to Brazil peaked between 1908 and 1960, with the highest concentr ...

father, Tulio moved to Japan at age 15 to complete his high school studies. After graduation from Shibuya Makuhari High School in

Chiba Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama ...

in 2001, Tulio joined the

J1 League The , the J.League or the for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Japan and the highest level of the Japanese football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation ...

club

Sanfrecce Hiroshima Sanfrecce Hiroshima () is a Japanese professional association football, football club based in Hiroshima. The club competes in the J1 League, top flight of the Japanese football league system. Sanfrecce is one of the most successful clubs in Ja ...

. In the opening game of the 2001 season on 11 March, he debuted as substitute defender in the tenth minute, replacing the injured

Tony Popovic Tony Popovic (born 4 July 1973) is an Australian association football manager and former player. He is currently head coach of the Australia men's national soccer team, Australia national football team. He guided the team to qualify for the 202 ...

, and scored a goal in the 16th minute. After the debut, he played many matches as centre-back in two seasons. Sanfrecce was relegated to

J2 League The or simply J2 is the second division of the and the second level of the Japanese association football league system. The top tier is represented by the J1 League. It (along with the rest of the J.League) is currently sponsored by Meiji Yasud ...

end of 2002 season. In 2003, Tulio moved to fellow

side

Mito HollyHock is a Japanese professional football (soccer) club located in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture. The team currently playing in the J2 League, Japanese second tier of professional football. Name origin Its nickname "HollyHock" derives from the family ...

. On 10 October 2003, he received approval to naturalise as a Japanese citizen. Playing as a centre-back, he scored ten goals in the 2003 season. In 2004, after a season at Mito, Tulio returned to the J1 League, joining

Urawa Red Diamonds The or simply Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ, ''Urawa Rezzu''), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, are a professional association football, football club in the city of Saitama (city), Saitama, part of t ...

. After the strong performance in 2006 season, which led Urawa to win their first ever J1 League title, he received

J.League Most Valuable Player The J.League Player of the Year (formerly known as the "J.League Most Valuable Player Award" from 1993 to 2020) is awarded by the J.League to the most valuable player of the season. J1 League winners Wins by club J2 League winners J3 League w ...

. In 2007, Urawa won their first Asian champions in

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

. On 22 December 2009, after falling out with the management at Urawa as he was deployed in an unfamiliar position at the back, Tulio joined

Nagoya Grampus ; formerly known as is a Japanese association football club that plays in the J1 League, and have for all but one season since the inauguration of the league, following promotion from the J2 League in 2017. Based in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture an ...

. He played 168 games and scored 37 goals in 6 seasons and was selected in the team's Best Eleven every season. In his first season in Nagoya, Nagoya won the champions in 2010 J1 League first time in the club history. Nagoya also won the 2nd place in 2011 season. On 9 January 2016,

announced that the club and Tulio were parting ways. Nearly nine months later, on 28 August 2016, Tulio re-signed for Nagoya Grampus under new manager

Boško Gjurovski Boško Gjurovski (; ; born 28 December 1961) is a Macedonian professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He is the elder brother of Milko Djurovski and the uncle of Mario Djurovski. Playing career Club He was a ...

, before leaving Nagoya Grampus at the end of the 2016 season upon the expiration of his contract. In the off-season of the 2016–17 season, at the age of 35, Tulio signed with J2 club

Kyoto Sanga FC is a Japanese professional football club based in Kyoto. The club plays in the J1 League, the top tier of football in the country. Its name "Sanga" comes from the Sanskrit word ''sangha'', a term meaning "group" or "club" and often used to deno ...

International career

Tulio obtained his Japanese citizenship on 10 October 2003. He played for the Japan U23 national team at the

2004 Olympic Games The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

. He played as centre-back in full time in all three matches. Tulio made his debut for the Japan's senior national team on 9 August 2006, against

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

.Japan National Football Team Database
/ref> He scored his first goal for Japan on 15 November 2006 in a 2007 Asian Cup qualifier against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. He missed the

2007 AFC Asian Cup The 2007 AFC Asian Cup was the 14th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held from 7 to 29 July 2007. For the first time in its h ...

finals due to injury. His absence was a big blow to the Japan national team. He was selected for the Japan national team for

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

. On 30 May, he scored for Japan against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in the 7th minute of a World Cup warm-up, and also scored for England against Japan in the form of an own goal 67 minutes later. As Japan's captain Yuji Nakazawa later also scored an own goal, the game finished 2–1 for England. On 4 June, he scored for

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

against Japan in the form of an own goal in the 13th minute of a friendly match. Three minutes later, he injured Côte d'Ivoire attacker

Didier Drogba Didier Yves Drogba Tébily (; born 11 March 1978) is an Ivorian former professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker. He is the Top international association football goal scorers by cou ...

's elbow which was fractured by a high challenge from Tulio. At the 2010 FIFA World Cup, he played full time in all four matches as center back with Yuji Nakazawa. Japan qualified to the knockout stage. This tournament was his last performance for Japan. He played 43 games and scored 8 goals for Japan.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Japan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Tulio goal.''

Honours

Urawa Red Diamonds *

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or Japan FA Cup, and rebranded as The JFA Emperor's Cup from 2024 onwards, is a Japanese annual football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football tournament in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formatio ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Japanese Super Cup The , the for sponsorship reasons, is an annual one-match association football competition in Japan organised by J.League and the Japan Football Association. This competition serves as the season opener and is played between the reigning J1 Leag ...

Nagoya Grampus *

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Japan *

Kirin Cup The is an association football tournament organised in Japan by the Kirin Brewery Company. The host, Japan national football team, Japan, is a participant in every edition. The tournament was founded in 1978 then known as Japan Cup (Internatio ...

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 ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Individual * Japanese Footballer of the Year: 2006 *

* J.League Best Eleven:

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

* J.League 30th Anniversary Team

References

External links

* *
Japan National Football Team Database
*
Profile at Kyoto Sanga FC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanaka, Marcus Tulio 1981 births Living people Japanese men's footballers Japan men's international footballers J1 League players J2 League players Sanfrecce Hiroshima players Mito HollyHock players Urawa Red Diamonds players Nagoya Grampus players Kyoto Sanga FC players Olympic footballers for Japan Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics 2010 FIFA World Cup players AFC Champions League Elite–winning players Japanese Footballer of the Year winners Expatriate men's footballers in Japan Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Brazilian men's footballers Japanese people of Italian descent Brazilian emigrants to Japan Brazilian people of Italian descent Footballers from São Paulo Brazilian sportspeople of Japanese descent Men's association football defenders Naturalized citizens of Japan People from Palmeira d'Oeste Footballers from São Paulo (state) Naturalised association football players 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen