Paris Saint-Germain faces Tottenham tonight in Champions League, and it will be a very special match for captain Marquinhos, who will celebrate his 500th match with PSG. The Brazilian joined the club in the summer of 2013 at the age of 19, coming from one season in AS Roma. He is now 31, has been captain since taking over Thiago Silva in 2020, and after years of seemingly never ending disappointments, finally lifted the Champions League trophy last year.
Zoumana Camara, his former teammate in PSG until 2015 and who later became assistant coach for PSG and now leads Montpellier, said that Marquinhos is an exemplary captain, "meaning he doesn't need to speak much, but we see how he behaves every day, how he worships discipline. With time, of course, he now also speaks up; he is capable of making his voice heard" (via RMC Sport).
Having played 500 matches with the same club, he is only behind Steve Mandana (613 matches for Olympique de Marseille) and Nicolas Seue (520 matches for Caen) in the ranking of more loyal players in French football. In PSG, the record for most matches was held by Jean-Marc Pilorget (435 matches).
He is still far from Leo Messi (778 matches for Barcelona), Thomas Muller (756 matches for Bayern Munich) and Sergio Busquets (722 matches for Barcelona), but there are no signs that he wants to leave the club now that they've finally conquered the Champions League.