Marcelo has said that winning the Copa Libertadores with Fluminense is more "important" to him than any of the five Champions League trophies he won with Real Madrid after the Brazilian club's win over Boca Juniors on Saturday.
The left-back played 80 minutes for Fluminense -- the club he left for Madrid as a teenager in 2007, before rejoining earlier this year -- in the 2-1 extra-time victory at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
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Substitute John Kennedy scored the winner in the 99th minute -- after Luis Advincula had levelled for Boca following German Cano's opener -- before being sent off two minutes later.
Marcelo holds the record for the player with most trophies won for Real Madrid, with 25 over 15 years, but speaking to ESPN after the final he said none matched lifting the Libertadores with his boyhood club.
"Real Madrid will understand," he said. "It's my most important trophy, at club level, because it's the club that raised me. Real knows it's always in my heart. It's hard to say. It's a double joy."
Marcelo left Madrid on a free transfer in the summer of 2022 after winning his fifth Champions League trophy against Liverpool in Paris.
His 25-trophy haul included five Champions Leagues, four Club World Cups, three UEFA Super Cups, six LaLiga titles, two Copas del Reys and five Spanish Supercopas.
He joined Olympiakos in Greece on a free transfer in September 2022 but made just 10 appearances for the club before terminating his contract five months later, and rejoining Fluminense in February 2023.
"I had a debt with Fluminense," he told Globo. It was meant to be... I worked hard, a lot of people criticized me. But it goes in one ear and comes out the other. Today, Fluminense are Libertadores champions."
