Marlon Santos da Silva Barbosa (born 7 September 1995), known as Marlon or Marlon Santos, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays for

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

club

Los Angeles FC Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) is an American professional association football, soccer club based in Los Angeles. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. It was establi ...

Club career

Fluminense

Marlon joined the Fluminense academy at the age of 14; after progressing through the youth ranks, in

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 ...

he made his debut for Fluminense at the age of 18, in the

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (; English: "Brazilian Championship A Series"), commonly referred to as the Brasileirão (; English: "Big Brazilian" or "Great Brazilian"), the Série A or the Brazilian Série A (to distinguish it from the I ...

, versus

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

in a 5–2 victory. Marlon ended his first season with 20 league appearances, and played twice in the Copa Sudamericana. Having missed the first part of the 2015 season due to international duty with Brazil U20, Marlon returned for the second half where he played as a starter for Fluminense. He played 24 games in the league.

Barcelona

On 8 June 2016, Marlon signed for

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

on a season-long loan. He played as a starter for their B team, helping them gain promotion from the

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

(third division) to the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

(second division) with 27 appearances between the regular season and the promotion play-offs. Marlon made his debut for the first team on 23 November 2016, in a Champions League group stage game against Celtic, coming on as a substitute in the 72nd minute for Gerard Piqué. Marlon's

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 ...

debut came against Las Palmas on 14 May 2017. After impressing on loan, Barcelona activated Marlon's loan clause from Fluminense for €5 million on a four-year contract.

Nice (loan)

In August 2017, Nice signed Marlon on loan. He made his debut in

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

against

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in a 4–0 win, and played a total of 23 league games. Marlon's loan ended early at the end of the 2017–18 season as manager

Patrick Vieira Patrick Paul Vieira (; born 23 June 1976) is a French professional association football, football manager and former player who is the head coach of Serie A club Genoa CFC, Genoa. He was named in the FIFA 100 of the greatest living footballers i ...

announced that Marlon would no longer form part of his squad.

Sassuolo

On 16 August 2018, Marlon signed for

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

Sassuolo Sassuolo (; ) is an Italian town, ''comune'', and industrial centre of the Province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna. Standing on the right bank of the river Secchia some southwest of Modena, the town is best known for being the centre of the Ita ...

for an initial fee of €6 million with a buy-back clause in Barcelona's favour. Upon 50 games played Sassuolo would owe Barcelona another €6 million. Marlon made his debut on matchday 2 against

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

; he was sent out for a second yellow card in added time. Nevertheless, he impressed head coach Roberto De Zerbi who fielded him for 15 consecutive games as a starter without subbing him off. He made 18 appearances in the 2018–19 Serie A season, scoring once against

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on 28 October. The following two seasons ( 2019–20 and 2020–21), Marlon played 47 total games in the league.

Shakhtar Donetsk

On 22 June 2021, Shakhtar Donetsk announced the signing of Marlon on a five-year contract, where he reunited with former Sassuolo coach De Zerbi. He played 12 league games, and helped Shakhtar win the 2021 Ukrainian Super Cup.

Monza (loan)

On 5 August 2022, Marlon returned to Serie A, signing for newly-promoted side Monza for one year. He made his debut on 8 August, in a 3–2

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

win against Frosinone.

Fluminense (loan)

On 12 July 2023, Marlon returned to Fluminense on a one-year loan.

Los Angeles FC

On 11 September 2024, Marlon joined

as a free agent.

International career

Marlon represented Brazil internationally at the under-20 level at the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup, helping his side reach the final which they lost after extra time against

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

. He also played at the 2015 South American U-20 Championship.

Style of play

Marlon is 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 ...

who can play in a back three, either on the left or the right. He is known for his physicality, stamina and heading, and can set up the game from the back with his passing. Serhiy Palkin, CEO of Shakhtar, defined Marlon as "one of the best defenders in Europe technically".

Personal life

Marlon and his girlfriend Maria have two sons, Pedro and João Miguel Santos.

Career statistics

Honours

Fluminense *

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

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Recopa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Recopa Sudamericana (), also known as Recopa Sudamericana or CONMEBOL Recopa, and simply as Recopa (, ; "Winners' Cup"), is an annual international club Association football, football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1988. It ...

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 ...

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 ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Barcelona *

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

: 2016–17 Shakhtar Donetsk * Ukrainian Super Cup:

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 ...

Los Angeles FC * U.S. Open Cup:

Brazil U20 *

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

runner-up:

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References

External links

*
Profile
at A.C. Monza {{DEFAULTSORT:Marlon 1995 births Living people Copa Libertadores–winning players Brazilian men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Fluminense FC players FC Barcelona Atlètic players FC Barcelona players OGC Nice players US Sassuolo Calcio players FC Shakhtar Donetsk players AC Monza players Al Ain FC players Los Angeles FC players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Segunda División B players La Liga players Serie A players Ligue 1 players Major League Soccer players Ukrainian Premier League players UAE Pro League players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in France Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Ukraine Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Brazil men's youth international footballers Brazil men's under-20 international footballers Footballers from Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen