The former Portuguese internationalist and Sporting Clube de Portugal player Marinho starred for First Portuguese in the 1977 National Soccer League season.
Mário da Silva Mateus was born in Lisbon, Portugal, on September 3, 1943. He was known in soccer circles as Marinho.
Marinho started his career with Lisbon-club Atlético Clube de Portugal. He made his senior debut with Atlético in the Portuguese Primeira Liga in the 1962-63 season, scoring a goal in a 2-1 win against Olhanense. After five years with Atlético he moved to Sporting Clube de Portugal.
In the 1967-68 season, his first with Sporting, he scored ten goals. Two seasons later he scored a personal record of fourteen league goals. His performance that season earned Marinho his first international call up for the Portuguese national team. He made his debut for Portugal in an World Cup qualifying game against Switzerland on November 2, 1969. The game ended in a 1-1 tie. In total Marinho played in five international games for Portugal.
Marinho won the Portuguese league championship with Sporting in the 1969-70 and 1973-74 seasons. He won the Portuguese Cup with Sporting in 1971, 1973 and 1974.
He ended his career with Sporting after the 1976-77 season.
Marinho then moved to Toronto and joined First Portuguese in the National Soccer League in May 1977.
He made his debut for the First Portuguese club against Windsor Stars on May 15, 1977. In his first game in Canada Marinho was tackled out of the game by Stars’ former Scottish League player Ian Sneddon.
Marinho went on to star in the National Soccer League and scored two goals as First Portuguese beat Montreal Castors 2-0.
On July 20 he scored three goals to lead First Portuguese to a 7-1 win over London City in Toronto.
In all Marinho scored 18 goals in 24 games during the 1977 NSL season.
In the 1979 season he had an unsuccessful period with Toronto Blizzard in the North American Soccer League.