Luis Felipe played for Lazio from 2017 to 2022.
Luiz Felipe Ramos Marchi was born in Colina, Brazil, in 1997. His youth career started with Ituano where he played his first professional game in 2016 in the Brazilian fourth division.
He was surprisingly signed by Lazio in the summer of 2016 and lent to Salernitana for a year. He did not play much at all, barely seven games, and in the summer of 2017 he was back at Lazio for the start of the pre-season training.
I distinctly remember him coming on in the final 20 minutes of the pre-season friendly against Spal. He made a serious mistake and almost allowed Spal to score. But then he got the ball from the Lazio penalty box and burst past all of the Spal team and was fouled once he was in the penalty box. “Interesting”, I thought and that is probably what also went through the mind of Simone Inzaghi. Luiz Felipe was confirmed and joined the Lazio squad for the 2017-18 season.
Great defender, he has a lot of potential though at times is over eager and makes a lot of fouls. He therefore gets booked a lot more than other defenders, a big liability. Another fault is that at times is a little too over confident, hence giving away balls and allowing the opposition chances to score.
Luiz Felipe had a five-year contract with Lazio. After having played for four years, he went into negotiations for the renewal. Both parties were interested in a new contract for the player but despite the optimism they never reached an agreement. At one point something must have gone wrong during negotiations and Luiz was free to sign for another team.
Lazio, not pleased with Luiz’s behaviour, in the last match of the 2021-22 season against Verona “forgot” to thank him for his services, unlike Lucas Leiva and Thomas Strakosha. Anyway Luiz Felipe, a free agent, made a surprise move and signed a five-year contract with Real Betis. He did very well in his first year in Spain and was voted one of the best defenders of the Liga. He stayed only a year in Spain though. In 2023 he signed for Al-Ittihād in the Saudi League.
Thanks to his dual nationality, he was called up by Roberto Mancini for the UEFA Nations League 2022-23 and played his first game for Italy against Germany in June 2022.
He left Lazio after 144 appearances (106 in Serie A, 10 in Coppa Italia, 4 in Champions League, 23 in Europa League and 1 in Super Coppa), 2 goals in Serie A and 3 trophies (2 Super Coppa and 1 Coppa Italia).
Lazio Career
Season | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Europa League | Super Coppa |
2017-18 | 31 | 18 (1) | 3 | - | 10 | - |
2018-19 | 25 | 17 | 3 | - | 5 | - |
2019-20 | 30 | 26 (1) | 2 | - | 1 | 1 |
2020-21 | 18 | 14 | - | 4 | - | - |
2021-22 | 40 | 31 | 2 | - | 7 | - |
Total | 144 | 106 (2) | 10 | 4 | 23 | 1 |
Sources