Rui Marques

Early career

After coming through the youth ranks at Portuguese club Benfica, Marques left to join Swiss side FC Baden. Following his spell at Baden, he began his professional career at Germany's SSV Ulm 1846 in the 1999–2000 season. He subsequently moved to Hertha BSC, but did not appear in a single match for the first team in the Bundesliga. After only six months with Hertha, Marques moved to fellow Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart, spending three and a half seasons there and winning the 2002 UEFA Intertoto Cup after beating French side Lille. In the 2004–05 season, he moved back to Portugal to join Primeira Liga side Marítimo in Madeira. However, after struggling to break into the first team, Marques was released after just one season. As a free agent, he then began to look for clubs abroad.

Leeds United

Prior to the 2005–06 season, Marques went on trial to Ipswich Town, where he impressed then manager Joe Royle enough to want to sign him permanently. However, Marques instead chose to move to Leeds United on a free transfer. He was signed by manager Kevin Blackwell, but Marques made only one appearance for Leeds in the 2005–06 season in the League Cup against Oldham Athletic, in which he was clearly very nervous and uncomfortable playing out of position at right-back. Marques did not feature again for Leeds that season, with Paul Butler, Sean Gregan, Matthew Kilgallon, Clarke Carlisle and Michael Duberry all ahead of him in the pecking order. Towards the…

Despite being eligible for the Portugal national team, Marques pledged his allegiance to the country of his birth, Angola. Marques played for Angola in the 2006 World Cup, where he played against Mexico, Iran and Portugal, with Angola finishing third in their group. Marques also played in the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, in which he played in all of Angola's matches. Marques was called up by Angola for the 2010 African Cup of Nations, where his country Angola were the host nation of the tournament, during this spell he was unavailable to play for Leeds. On 30 December 2009, he played in the 1–0 loss to Estonia, a friendly match as a warm-up for the Cup of Nations. He then played in the 1–1 draw against Gambia. Angola's first match of the African Cup of Nations was against Mali, a match which Marques started. Angola were 4–0 up with 15 minutes to play, but chaotically conceded 4 goals in the last 15 minutes as the match finished 4–4, with the likes of Seydou Keita and Frédéric Kanouté scoring for Mali. Marques then played the entire match in Angola's 2–0 win over Malawi and also started in the 0–0 draw with Algeria, a match which enabled Angola to progress to the quarter-finals as winners of their group. Marques' tournament came to an end when Angola were eliminated in the quarter-finals following a 1–0 loss to Ghana, with Asamoah Gyan scoring the winner. Marques would return to Leeds from the tournament with an injury.

VfB Stuttgart

UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2002