Marcelo’s record-setting trophy cabinet: A retrospective
Real Madrid captain Marcelo might not have the best season of his career, but the left-back made history last April 30 when he started their 4-0 win over Espanyol at the Bernabeu.
With the 35th La Liga title that he raised, he stood alone as the club’s greatest winner with his 24th trophy with Los Blancos, surpassing the late legend Paco Gento who had 23.
Here’s what his trophy cabinet looked like right now.
SIX (6) La Liga titles – Marcelo won his first two trophies in La Liga, where Real Madrid won back-to-back in contrasting fashions in 2007 and 2008. It will take four more years for him to get his third, largely in part in their Clasico win at Barcelona.
A longer five-year wait ended in 2017 with Madrid claiming their 33rd after a final-day win at Malaga. After a pair of third-place finishes, he lifted his fifth La Liga crown in a pandemic-hit season in 2020. His title wins this season was his sixth winner’s medal.
TWO (2) Copas del Rey – Unlike in La Liga, the Copa Del Rey is a harder piece of silverware to be won. Marcelo won it twice in 2011 and 2014, both of which came in an El Clasico final.
To put it into perspective, Real Madrid hasn’t appeared in the final for the past eight seasons since their 2014 triumph, having been bounced at the quarterfinal in half of the dry spell.
FIVE (5) Supercopas de España – Marcelo won those in both the two-team and the four-team format. Once a preseason affair, it was moved into the midseason in the 2019-20 edition.
“Los Blancos” have won all of these being La Liga’s representatives: thrice as champions, once as third-placed team and the other being the league runner-up. Their 2021-22 triumph in Saudi Arabia was the time when Marcelo leveled Gento’s then record.
FOUR (4) Champions League titles – Perhaps this is the holy grail that the Spanish powerhouse have chased for so long, in which Marcelo had a hand in all of those during which they dominated the past decade.
After ending their quest for La Decima in 2014, he then claimed a three-peat of European Cups from 2016-18. He can make it five (and extend his total record to 25) should they beat Liverpool in the final on May 28.
Other trophies – In addition to the 17 previous titles, Marcelo added three more UEFA Super Cups (2014, 2016, 2017) and four FIFA Club World Cups (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018).
