Edson André Sitoe (born 8 September 1988), known as Mexer, is a Mozambican 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 ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

TFF First League The TFF 1. Lig, officially known as Spor Toto 1. Lig for sponsorship reasons, is the second level of the Turkish football league system. The league was founded in 2001 as the ''Turkish Second League Category A'' after the reorganization of the ...

club

Bandırmaspor Bandırmaspor is a Turkish professional football club located in the town of Bandırma, Balıkesir Province. The club was founded in 1965 and currently plays in the TFF First League The TFF 1. Lig, officially known as Spor Toto 1. Lig for spo ...

and the Mozambique national team. Brought to Europe by

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional fo ...

in 2010, he played over 100

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal ...

games for

Olhanense Sporting Clube Olhanense () is a Portuguese sports club from Olhão, Algarve. Its football team was founded on 27 April 1912 and currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth tier of Portuguese football. It holds home matches at the ...

, Nacional and

Estoril Estoril () is a town in the Municipality of Cascais, Portugal, on the Portuguese Riviera. It is a tourist destination, with luxury hotels, beaches, and the Casino Estoril. It has been home to numerous royal families and celebrities, and has ...

. He also spent several years in the French

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. ...

, making 164 appearances for

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine departm ...

and

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture ...

and winning the

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and professio ...

with the former in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. A full international for

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Mala ...

with over 50

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

since 2007, Mexer represented the country at the

2010 Africa Cup of Nations The 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 27th Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was held in Angola, where it began on 10 January 20 ...

Club career

Portugal

Born in

Maputo Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,08 ...

, Mexer began his career with Desportivo de Maputo. In November 2009, he and compatriot defender

Zainadine Júnior Zainadine Abdula Chavango Júnior (born 24 June 1988) is a Mozambican professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Portuguese club Marítimo. He spent most of his career in Portugal with rivals Nacional and Marítimo, making over 2 ...

had trials at

in Portugal; at the start of the new year he signed for a fee of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

173,000 and agreed a -year contract with the option of a further three. On 24 February 2010, Mexer made his debut with a Sporting jersey in a reserve team match against Belenenses in the

Liga Intercalar The Liga Intercalar or Reserves Championship was a competition that served mainly to rotate less used players, juniors and players returning from injury. The first edition (2007–2008) was organized by the Football Association of Porto, monitored ...

. In August, 50% interests on any future transfer revenue received by Sporting were sold to

Traffic Group Traffic Group is a sports event management company founded in Brazil, headquartered in São Paulo. History Traffic Group holds the television rights to a number of association football matches in the Americas including Copa América, Copa Lib ...

for €87,000, and he spent the 2010–11 season on loan to fellow

side

, making his competition debut on 11 September 2010 and playing six minutes in a 0–0 draw at precisely Sporting. Mexer also played the 2011–12 campaign with the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has its ...

club, still owned by the ''Lions'', and only missed six league matches as his team again managed to retain their status. In May 2012, he moved to Nacional also in the Portuguese top tier on a four-year deal. He scored his first professional goal the following 12 January, equalising in a 3–2 home win over

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (i ...

Rennes

On 19 June 2014, after a failed transfer to the French club in January, Mexer signed with

on a three-year deal. In only his second appearance in

, on 16 August, he contributed two goals in a 6–2 home victory over

Evian Evian ( , ; , stylized as evian) is a French company that bottles and commercialises mineral water from several sources near Évian-les-Bains, on the south shore of Lake Geneva. It produces over 2 billion plastic bottles per year. Today, Evia ...

. In February 2016, despite consistent injuries, Mexer extended his contract until the summer of 2019. He took part in his first European competition in the

2018–19 UEFA Europa League The 2018–19 UEFA Europa League was the 48th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 10th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played at the Olympic St ...

, reaching the last 16. Mexer played the full 120 minutes and scored the 2–2 equaliser against

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As F ...

in the final of the

on 27 April 2019, helping his team

win Win or WIN may refer to: * A victory Arts and entertainment Film * '' Win!'', a 2016 American film Literature * ''Win'' (Coben novel), a 2121 novel by Harlan Coben * WIN (pacifist magazine), published by the War Resisters League * WIN (wrest ...

the competition for the third time in their 118-year history after being down 2–0.

Bordeaux

After the expiration of his Rennes contract, Mexer was the subject of interest from

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

of the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

, and met with manager

Steven Gerrard Steven George Gerrard (born 30 May 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player, who most recently managed club Aston Villa. Described by pundits and fellow professionals as one of his generation's greatest players, ...

. However, he opted to remain in France, signing a four-year deal at

on 9 May 2019. In

2020–21 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 ...

, he was limited by recurrent thigh injuries. On 26 September 2021, Mexer scored his first goal for the ''Girondins'', a late equaliser in a 1–1 home draw against his previous club.

Later career

Mexer returned to Portugal in August 2022 eight years after leaving, with the 34-year-old agreeing to a one-year contract at

. On 25 July 2023, he joined

of the Turkish

on a two-year deal.

International career

Mexer made his debut for

on 29 September 2007, in a 3–0 loss to Zambia in the semi-finals of the

COSAFA Cup The COSAFA Cup or COSAFA Senior Challenge Cup is an annual tournament for teams from Southern Africa organized by Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA), inaugurated after the ban against the Republic of South Africa had bee ...

. In the following year's edition, he was part of the squad that came runners-up, but did not play in the final against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

. He represented the nation at the

, a group stage elimination in Angola. On 18 May 2014, Mexer scored his first international goal in a 5–0 home rout of

South Sudan South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the ...

in the first leg of the first round of

2015 Africa Cup of Nations The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, Equatorial Guinea 2015 for sponsorship reasons, was the 30th staging of the Africa Cup of Nations, the international men's football championship of Africa. It was orga ...

qualification Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

International goals

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

Honours

Desportivo Maputo *

Moçambola Moçambola (or Campeonato Moçambicano de Futebol, Portuguese for Mozambican Football Championship) is the top division of Mozambican football. It is organized by the Liga Moçambicana de Futebol. History In 1976, shortly after the country's ...

: 2006 Rennes *

: 2018–19 Mozambique *

runner-up:

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

References

External links

Desportivo Maputo 2006–07 squad
* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mexer 1988 births Living people Mozambican men's footballers Footballers from Maputo Men's association football defenders GD Maputo players Primeira Liga players Sporting CP footballers S.C. Olhanense players C.D. Nacional players G.D. Estoril Praia players Ligue 1 players Championnat National 3 players Stade Rennais F.C. players FC Girondins de Bordeaux players TFF First League players Bandırmaspor footballers Mozambique men's international footballers 2010 Africa Cup of Nations players Mozambican expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Mozambican expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Mozambican expatriate sportspeople in France Mozambican expatriate sportspeople in Turkey