Mehmet Aurélio

In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Brito and the second or paternal family name is Dos Prazeres.

Mehmet Aurélio

Mehmet Aurélio with Turkey in 2008
Personal information
Birth name	Marco Aurélio Brito dos Prazeres
Date of birth	(1977-12-15) 15 December 1977 (age 47)
Place of birth	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s)	Defensive midfielder
Team information
Current team	Antalyaspor (assistant manager)
Youth career
1993–1995	Bangu
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1995–2001	Flamengo	123	(21)
2001	Olaria	17	(2)
2001–2003	Trabzonspor	64	(15)
2003–2008	Fenerbahçe	176	(13)
2008–2010	Betis	69	(6)
2010–2013	Beşiktaş	34	(1)
2013	Olaria	21	(0)
Total		493	(58)
International career
2006–2011	Turkey	37	(2)
Managerial career
2015	Kasımpaşa (assistant)
2016	Göztepe (assistant)
2016	Göztepe (caretaker)
2016–2018	Sakaryaspor (assistant)[1]
2018–2019	Çorum FK
2020–2021	Fenerbahçe (assistant)
2024–	Antalyaspor (assistant)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Mehmet Aurélio (born Marco Aurélio Brito dos Prazeres, 15 December 1977^[2]) is a football coach and former player, who played as a defensive midfielder.

Formed at Flamengo, where he made over 100 appearances, he spent most of his career in Turkey, making 254 Süper Lig appearances and scoring 29 goals for Trabzonspor, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş, winning three league titles with the second of those clubs. He also played two seasons in La Liga for Real Betis.

Born in Brazil, he naturalised as a citizen of Turkey and made 44 appearances for the Turkey national team between 2006 and 2011, scoring twice. He was part of their squad that reached the semi-finals of UEFA Euro 2008. From 2015, he worked as a manager in Turkey, mainly as an assistant with brief spells leading lower-league clubs.

Club career

Early career

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Mehmet Aurélio began his career at Bangu before playing for hometown club Flamengo from 1995 to 2001. He signed for Olaria in 2001, and later that year he joined Trabzonspor in the Turkish Süper Lig, where he won the Turkish Cup in 2003.^[3]

Fenerbahçe

In 2003, Mehmet Aurélio signed for Fenerbahçe from Istanbul. He played 218 games over five years, scoring 18 goals and assisting 35. He helped them win the league in 2004, 2005 and 2007, the last of those coming in the club's centenary. He highlighted the quarter-final win over Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League in 2007–08 as a career highlight, although the English club won the tie over two legs.^[4]

Real Betis

In July 2008, Spanish La Liga club Real Betis signed Mehmet Aurélio on a three-year deal.^[5] He played 29 games and scored 4 goals in his first season – including two in a 4–2 win at Numancia on 9 November^[6] – as his team suffered relegation. From April to November 2009, he was sidelined with a right knee ligament injury.^[7]

Club owner Manuel Ruiz de Lopera described his team as the "Real Madrid of the Segunda División", but they did not achieve promotion in 2009–10. Mehmet Aurélio described his time in Seville as a low point of his career.^[8]

Beşiktaş and Olaria

In August 2010, Mehmet Aurélio returned to Istanbul, signing for Beşiktaş on a two-year deal on a free transfer.^[9] On 11 May 2011, he converted his penalty in the shootout as his team won the Turkish Cup against İstanbul BB (4–3, 2–2 after extra time). His contract expired in the summer of 2012.

Mehmet Aurélio signed with his former club Olaria on 1 March 2013, where he retired at the end of the season.^[3]

International career

In July 2006, after five years of work in Turkey, Mehmet Aurélio was naturalised as a citizen of the country and changed his name from Marcos. He was immediately called up by the Turkey national football team for a friendly against Luxembourg, where he would become the first naturalised player to represent the nation.^[10]

Mehmet Aurélio started in the 1–0 win at the Stade Josy Barthel on 16 August. His debut caused controversy in Turkish society. Columnist Ergun Babahan [tr] wrote in Daily Sabah that integration was a Turkish tradition, dating back to the Devshirme abductions of Christian children by the Ottoman Empire. Chief referee Mustafa Çulcu [tr] argued with manager Fatih Terim that it was a "degradation" of the national team. Some Turkish liberals mentioned that Bulgarian-born Olympic weightlifter Naim Süleymanoğlu was welcomed by Turkish society; when people countered that Süleymanoğlu was an ethnic Turk and a Muslim, it was brought up that the Turkish constitution does not discriminate by race and religion.^[11]

On 12 September 2007, Mehmet Aurélio scored his first international goal in a 3–0 home win over Hungary in UEFA Euro 2008 qualification.^[12] At the finals in Austria and Switzerland, he played every minute of the group stage.^[13][14][15] Having been booked in the latter two games – wins against Switzerland and the Czech Republic – he was suspended for the quarter-final that his team won on penalties against Croatia in Vienna.^[16] He returned for the semi-finals, where his team lost 3–2 to Germany.^[17]

Managerial career

Mehmet Aurélio returned to Turkey in April 2015 as assistant manager to Önder Özen at Kasımpaşa, later joining him at Göztepe. Following Özen's resignation, Mehmet Aurélio managed the latter club for the final seven games of the TFF First League season, debuting on 10 April 2016 with a 2–0 home win over Karşıyaka .^[18]

After a spell as assistant at Sakaryaspor, Mehmet Aurélio managed Çorumspor in the TFF Third League from September 2018 until the following January. He won 9 and drew 1 of his 18 games and his team were in 4th place.^[19]

In May 2020, Mehmet Aurélio returned to Fenerbahçe as assistant manager, graduating to technical director two years later. In May 2024, he became assistant manager at Antalyaspor to Alex, a Brazilian who was his teammate at Fenerbahçe.^[20]

Career statistics

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	12 September 2007	Istanbul, Turkey	Hungary	2–0	3–0	UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying
2.	19 November 2008	Vienna, Austria	Austria	1–1	4–2	Friendly

Honours

Trabzonspor

• Turkish Cup: 2002–03

Fenerbahçe

• Süper Lig: 2003–04, 2004–05, 2006–07
• Turkish Super Cup: 2007

Beşiktaş

• Turkish Cup: 2010–11

Turkey

• UEFA European Championship bronze medalist: 2008^[21][22][23]

References

1. Tuncay Şanlı ile Mehmet Aurelio Sakaryaspor'da‚ yeniturkhaber.com, 26 October 2016
2. Mehmet Aurélio at Soccerway
3. Teixeira, Chandy (1 March 2013). "Mehmet Aurélio, ex-Fla e seleção da Turquia, assina com o Olaria" [Mehmet Aurélio, ex-Fla and Turkey national team player, signs with Olaria] (in Portuguese). Globo Esporte. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
4. Tiryaki, Erkan (29 May 2020). "Ex-Fenerbahce midfielder happy to return to former club". Anadolu Agency. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
5. "El Betis ficha por tres temporadas al ex jugador del Fenerbahçe Mehmet Aurelio" [Betis sign ex-Fenerbahçe player Mehmet Aurélio for three seasons]. Diario AS (in Spanish). 9 July 2008. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
6. "Mehmet Aurelio permite al Betis coger aire ante un Numancia que se hunde (2-4)" [Mehmet Aurélio allows Betis to draw air against a Numancia who sink (2-4)] (in Spanish). Libertad Digital. 9 November 2008. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
7. "Mehmet Aurelio recibe el alta médica aunque parece que no jugará ante el Cádiz" [Mehmet Aurélio receives the all-clear although it seems that he will not play against Cádiz]. Diario de Sevilla (in Spanish). 3 November 2009. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
8. "Mehmet Aurelio y el mal recuerdo de su etapa en el Betis" [Mehmet Aurélio and the bad memory of his stint at Betis]. Estadio Deportivo (in Spanish). 2 January 2020. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
9. "Beşiktaş beckons for Mehmet Aurélio". UEFA. 25 August 2010. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
10. "Brasileiro é convocado para seleção turca" [Brazilian is chosen for the Turkish national team] (in Portuguese). Globo Esporte. 11 August 2006. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
11. Birch, Nicolas (21 August 2006). "A naturalized citizen plays for Turkish national soccer team, and not everyone is happy". Eurasianet. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
12. "Turkey win as Gera sees red". UEFA. 12 September 2007. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
13. McNulty, Phil (7 June 2008). "Portugal 2-0 Turkey". BBC Sport. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
14. Sanghera, Mandeep (11 June 2008). "Switzerland 1-2 Turkey". BBC Sport. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
15. Sanghera, Mandeep (15 June 2008). "Turkey 3-2 Czech R & Switzerland 2-0 Portugal". BBC Sport. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
16. Harrold, Michael (20 June 2008). "Turkey triumph in Vienna shoot-out". UEFA. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
17. "Germany unchanged, Mehmet Aurelio returns for Turkey". Times of Malta. 25 June 2008. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
18. "Mehmet Aurelio: 3 puan aldığımız için çok mutluyum" [Mehmet Aurélio: I am very happy that we got 3 points]. Habertürk (in Turkish). 10 April 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
19. "Yeni Çorumspor'da Mehmet Aurelio dönemi sona erdi" [Mehmet Aurélio era ended at Yeni Çorumspor] (in Turkish). Andadolu Agency. 22 January 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
20. "Antalyaspor'un yeni hocası Alex'ten Mehmet Aurelio ve Semih Şentürk açıklaması!" [Statement from Antalyaspor's new coach Alex about Mehmet Aurélio and Semih Şentürk!]. Daily Sabah (in Turkish). 30 May 2024. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
21. "Regulations of theUEFA European Football Championship" (PDF). UEFA. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
22. "Germany-Turkey | Line-ups | UEFA EURO". UEFA. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
23. "UEFA EURO 2008™ squad lists announced" (PDF). UEFA. 28 May 2008. Retrieved 4 December 2020.

External links

• Mehmet Aurélio – FIFA competition record (archived)
• Mehmet Aurélio at National-Football-Teams.com
• Mehmet Aurélio at Sambafoot (archived)
• Mehmet Aurélio at the Turkish Football Federation
• CBF (in Portuguese)