Mário Fernandes

Mário Fernandes has one of the more fascinating backstories in modern football. A Brazilian right-back born near São Paulo in 1990, he ended up naturalizing as Russian and playing for both national teams, which is rare and a little poignant given how those two football cultures differ. I remember him most for the 2018 World Cup run with Russia, and the 2018 Honoured Master of Sports award reflects how much that meant to his adopted country. At 186 cm he had the frame for an attacking full-back. To me he's a reminder that football identity can be genuinely transnational, shaped as much by where you're embraced as where you're born.

Name (English)

Mário Fernandes

Name (Japanese)

マリオ・フィゲイラ・フェルナンデス

Reading

まりお・ふぃげいら・ふぇるなんです

Born

September 19, 1990 (age 35)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Horse

Origin

São Caetano do Sul, São Paulo, Brazil

Height

186 cm

Occupation

association football player

Awards & achievements

• 2018 Honoured Master of Sports of Russia

Motto

Private

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/mario.fernandes02/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9E%E3%83%AA%E3%82%AA%E3%83%BB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A3%E3%82%B2%E3%82%A4%E3%83%A9%E3%83%BB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A7%E3%83%AB%E3%83%8A%E3%83%B3%E3%83%87%E3%82%B9

Tags

• São Paulo
• association football player

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.