We had to wait even longer to blow out the 500 candles. While playing Brazil’s two preferred friendlies against Senegal and Tunisia, Marquinhos did not take part in PSG’s match against Le Havre this Saturday.
Luis Enrique preferred to let him breathe on the bench by aligning a defense consisting of Lucas Beraldo and Illya Zabarnyi. And when changing players, the Spanish technician made five changes and chose to give playing minutes to Lucas Hernandez to replace the 21 year old Brazilian player.
Marquinhos, wearing a heavy tracksuit given the cold weather plaguing the capital, still has to wait before passing the highly symbolic milestone of 500 games in a Paris shirt and may do so in this week’s Champions League against Tottenham (Wednesday, 9pm).
Arriving in 2013 aged just 19, the Brazilian became a key figure at PSG, even wearing the captain’s armband following Thiago Silva’s departure. During his time in charge, he won a total of 34 titles, including the first Champions League in the club’s history.
With 499 games under his belt, and his 500th on the horizon, the centre-back has an advantage over Jean-Marc Pilorget (435) and Marco Verratti (416), who are on the podium for players with the most games with the capital club. At only 31 years old, he can already play a lot more.
