Even though Alfonso Garcia Robles, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982, had done it, the thought of anyone rising from the western Mexican city of Zamora, population 100,000, to the very top of their profession was almost derisory.
The local school master clearly didn’t see a Robles-like rise in the scrawny boy who presented to his office, parents in tow, that day. Having shown early promise under the tutelage of his father, a young Rafael Marquez needed the principal’s approval for a 15-day absence to join up with a regional representative team. The response was swift and biting: he should forget about football because it will take him nowhere.
His father’s response was just as acerbic: the boy will go. While that was the end of his time at the educational institution it was the start of one of the finest careers of any defender to have graced the global stage.
Years later Marquez realised that moment was where it all started: “I’d like to run into that school principal and tell him thanks for the advice….which was worth nothing, for football has given me everything I’ve got.”
From that tournament, the young defender ended up being offered a place in the academy of Guadalajara-based outfit Atlas, the club where he would start and end his glittering career. Debuting at just 17, under a coach later to be his international one in Ricardo La Volpe, four months later, in early 1997, he was stunningly called up for the Mexican senior team.
As the traits that shone early – the composure, aggression, crisp passing and clinical precision in one-on-one situations – continued to develop, Marquez quickly outgrew Mexican football. Four seasons at Monaco preceded a trophy-laden seven-year spell at Barcelona.
It was with El Tri though where his legend was forged. For a player synonymous with the No4 shirt, it was the number just above that which would both haunt and vivify his career.
The ‘fifth match’ has a deeper meaning in Mexico than almost anywhere else on the planet. For seven straight editions of the FIFA World Cup, from 1994 to 2018, the team progressed from the group stage only to fall at the next hurdle. For the entire span of Marquez’s remarkable 21-year international career, Mexico failed to receive that ‘fifth match.’
Prior to the now 45-year-old’s arrival, it was Bulgaria in 1994, and then Germany four years later, that were the dream killers. USA, Argentina twice, the Netherlands and Brazil were those that haunted Mexico for the following five editions.
As maddening as that run was, the flip-side is that no other nation, bar Brazil, progressed from the group stage as often as Mexico did over the span. At the heart of that sequence was the only man to have captained his nation at five World Cups, the indefatigable Marquez.
Arriving in Korea/Japan 2002 as a 23-year-old, eyebrows may have been raised that the young defender was tasked with leading the team. Not those of coach, Javier Aguirre, who said the decision was straight-forward: “Rafa was my captain, he had that emotional balance which allowed him to speak to the group, be concise and be heard.”
That balance was tilted, though, in the last-16 clash with USA where Marquez was shown a straight red for a headbutt on Cobi Jones. It was far from the last time where the Mexican would be at the centre of things as the nation kept chasing that ‘fifth match.’
At Germany 2006, a sixth-minute Marquez header put El Tri in front against Argentina in the last 16, only a for an outrageous Maxi Rodriguez strike to win it in extra-time.
A late Marquez equaliser against the hosts in the tournament opener at South Africa 2010 helped Mexico reach the knockout phase, where Argentina again, this time through Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain, became the latest fifth-deniers.
After Arjen Robben went flailing into the Fortaleza turf following a tangle with the Mexican captain at Brazil 2014, it was Klaas-Jan Huntelaar who broke Mexican hearts from the penalty spot in the fourth minute of extra-time.
A long-running dispute with American authorities, finally resolved in 2021, threatened his participation at a record fifth World Cup. Although no longer a starter, and having said farewell to the club game back at his beloved Atlas earlier in the year, the 39-year-old made the squad for Russia 2018.
The moment where history was secured had further roots back at his boyhood club. Summoned from the bench by Juan Carlos Osorio in the 74th minute of Mexico’s opener against Germany in Moscow, it was Andres Guardado, part of the Atlas youth set-up at the same time as Marquez, who came off, kissed the veteran leader on the cheek and passed over the blue armband.
Two weeks later, in Samara, a remarkable career came to an end as Marquez was withdrawn at half-time in a 2-0 defeat against Brazil, the latest nation to deny Mexico the ‘fifth match.’ It was the last time that ‘El Capitan’ would set foot on a pitch as a professional player.
Now back at Barcelona, where he is in charge of the Spanish giants’ youth side, Barca Atletic, Marquez’s place in history is assured. A career not just of remarkable longevity but one defined by his understated leadership, as former team-mate Oswaldo Sanchez explained.
“There are different types of leaders on a team, and Rafa’s [leadership] wasn’t based on shouting,” he said. “It was about standing out with his quality and stance and with his great technique.”
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