If you are a USMNT fan and see this film pop up in your Netflix feed, you might think, ugh, why would I want to watch Rafa Márquez? But hey, it is always good to know your enemy. And this film from El Estudio is one of the most complete footballer documentaries I have reviewed. I needed to do very little additional research, because Rafa Marquez: El Capitan covers almost every inch of the man’s life.
Rafa decided to do this revealing documentary because he was already friends with El Estudio’s founder. And the film takes an interesting approach in that it shows us the milestones in Rafa’s career as well as his worst mistakes. As one of the interviewees points out, when you are a big star, you are always in the thick of it.
Rafa’s career and controversies
Rafa Marquez is one of the few footballers in the world to have played in 5 World cups and the first to have captained in 5 World Cups. He began (age 17) and ended (age 39) his club career with Atlas. From Atlas, the centerback went to Monaco, where his vices were fast cars. Then he played 7 years at Barcelona, blazing a new trail for MEX and CONCACAF players in Europe by winning the Champions League twice. His Barca teammates Carles Puyol, Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto’o and Xabi Hernandez all contribute thoughts on his ability.
Rafa’s second Champions League trophy and winning the Treble are under new manager Pep Guardiola, but technically Rafa is not on the field because he tears his meniscus in the Semis. By the time he returns to play, he’s been replaced by Gerard Piqué. Rafa decides to join the New York Red Bulls in MLS, placing money over soccer. He deems his 2 years in MLS a bad mistake, because American fans hated him (as did I). He should have gone to Juventus.
From there, Rafa returns to play in LigaMX. All the while, Rafa has figured significantly on Mexico’s National Team. He has perhaps surpassed Hugo Sanchez in stature, and even Hugo is one of the interviewees in this documentary.
But with those World Cups has come some notoriety. Rafa laments the NT’s mental inability to get past the Round of 16 since WC 1986 was held in Mexico. But he figures in at least 2 of those failures. The first is his WC 2002 send off for head butting Cobi Jones. The second is the WC 2014 PK he gave up to Arjen Robben. There is humorous coverage of the “No era penal” memes that arose after Robben’s likely dive.
The last controversy figures as the worst one in Rafa’s career. On Aug-9-2017, he was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department and Mexico for his relationship with Raul Flores Hernandez, a Jalisco druglord. I remember that his American assets were locked up, and he could no longer travel into the USA. He lost sponsorships, and there were issues on whether or not he could appear in American broadcasts, which included WC 2018 games. He was removed from the list on Sep-22-2021, with little media coverage.
After WC 2018, Rafa retired and began coaching Barcelona B (aka Barcelona Atlètic). In Jul-2024, he became an assistant to the MEX NT. There are comments in the film that he will eventually become the NT head coach. Frankly, that’s a job where no one can succeed. But as shown in this film, perhaps Rafa has the discipline and the relentlessness to drive Mexico to the WC semifinals and beyond. Or, perhaps Rafa is still making bad career choices. 🙂
In Conclusion
Though I really had no desire to become a fan of Rafa Márquez, his career certainly made an impression on me. I was also fascinated with the coverage of his youth career, and even that of his father. It was eery to see how much he and his footballer father looked alike. Except for the age of the images, I would have believed it was Rafa. It must be really neat to have someone put all your photos and videos together for you. 🙂
Rafa Marquez: El Capitan is a good film, and I encourage American fans to watch it. Besides knowing your enemy, it is always good to respect your enemy.
8 Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 8
Resources:
- Released: 2024-06-06 (Netflix)
- I watched this on Netflix
- Title in English is Rafa Márquez: The Capitan
- 1 hour 22 mins
- In Spanish and some English with English sub-titles
- IMDB
- Director: Carlos Armella
- Stars: Rafa Márquez , his wife Jaydy Michel
- Watch the Trailer
