Marcos Magno Morales Tavares (born 30 March 1984) is a retired Brazilian footballer who played as a striker. Tavares spent 15 seasons with Slovenian team Maribor, and is the club's all-time most capped player and top goalscorer. He is also the all-time top goalscorer of Slovenian top division with 159 goals.
At international level, Tavares was part of the Brazilian youth national teams from under-17 to under-20.
Early life
Tavares was born in Porto Alegre and spent his childhood in the city's slums with his father, a worker at Internacional, and his mother, a teacher. He is the youngest of three children and throughout his youth the family was living in poverty, sharing a one bedroom home where all five family members were sleeping in the same room and on the floor. Tavares claims he started playing football to help his family, and after spending a few years at Internacional youth selections, he was noticed by their city rivals Grêmio at the age of 13 and accepted their financial offer to switch clubs as he wanted to provide the financial means for his father to build a bigger home. However, Internacional and Grêmio are fierce city rivals who contest the Grenal derby and his father soon enough found himself unemployed.
Club career
Early career
Tavares has maintained that he was unable to manage the conflict between professional and personal life during his teenage years, and that his excessive partying, drinking and overall lack of discipline contributed to his failure to succeed in Brazil. At the age of 19 he went to Malaysia in desire for quick implementation. In the 2004 season, he played for Kedah in the Malaysian Super League, where he scored eleven league goals. When the season ended, Tavares returned to Brazil, where he signed a two-year contract with Atlético Paranaense in February 2005. However, he featured in only two games, both in Campeonato Paranaense, before being released by the club in May 2005.
After that, he once again continued his career in Kedah, where he was the team's top goalscorer in the 2005–06 Malaysia Premier League with twelve goals. After one season with Kedah, he was noticed by Roberto de Assis Moreira, who took him to Porto Alegre.
In 2007, Tavares moved to Europe as he signed for Cypriot side APOEL. He scored four goals in the Cypriot Cup, but in the Cypriot League he played only five matches without scoring any goals. Because he didn't perform as the club expected, Tavares was released from APOEL in January 2008.
Maribor
While playing for APOEL, Tavares met Nilton Fernandes, who introduced him to Zlatko Zahovič, the director of football at the Slovenian team Maribor. Tavares joined the team at their winter training camp in Croatia, and debuted in a friendly game against Šibenik. He signed a contract with Maribor on 29 January 2008. Tavares made his official competitive debut on 1 March 2008 against Koper in the 21st round of the 2007–08 Slovenian PrvaLiga season.
Tavares soon established himself in the team and among the fans. In the next season, he won the Slovenian championship with Maribor, the club's first title in six years. He was the league's second best goalscorer with 15 goals, and was voted the best player of the season. Tavares also received the Guest Star 2008 award, which is awarded to the best foreign sportsperson in Slovenia. In the 2009–10 season, he scored 10 goals in 34 league matches. In addition, he scored five goals in five cup matches, helping Maribor to win the 2009–10 Slovenian Cup. In October 2009, Tavares became the team captain after Zoran Pavlović left the club.
In September 2010, he signed a new contract with Maribor until 2013. In the 2010–11 season, he won the league title with Maribor and was crowned as the best league goalscorer with 16 goals. In addition, he was the club's best assist provider with 15 assists. For his performances during the course of the season, he was voted as the most valuable player by the Slovenian PrvaLiga players. He was also selected as the most distinguished player of the season by the fans of Maribor.
In July 2012, Tavares scored his tenth goal for Maribor in UEFA competitions in a match against Željezničar Sarajevo, becoming the club's all-time top scorer in UEFA competitions. The next month, he signed a new five-year contract with Maribor.