Marcos Rojo

Marcos Rojo is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Estudiantes de La Plata in the Argentine Primera División. Born Faustino Marcos Alberto Rojo on 20 March 1990, he has spent his career on the left side of defence, equally comfortable at left-back. As of the 2026 season he wears the number 5 for Estudiantes, the club where his professional story began and where he returned in 2026.

His career has taken him from La Plata to Moscow, Lisbon and Manchester, with a £16 million move to Manchester United in 2014 marking the peak of his club career. At Old Trafford he made 76 Premier League appearances and collected four trophies, including the 2016-17 UEFA Europa League. For Argentina he earned 61 caps over eight years and started through the 2014 World Cup, where the team reached the final.

Rojo remains a recognisable figure in Argentine football, with roughly 4 million Instagram followers and a reputation built on a decade of top-level defending. At 36 he is in the late stage of his playing days, back where it started. [edit]

La Plata, the capital of Buenos Aires Province, is a city built around football and around Estudiantes in particular. Rojo came through the club's youth system there, learning the game in the same setup that produced a long line of Argentine internationals. His ascent through the ranks was quick enough that he was a first-team squad member while still a teenager.

The breakthrough arrived in 2009. Estudiantes won the Copa Libertadores that year, and Rojo was part of the squad that lifted it. In December the club travelled to the FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, where they reached the final and lost to Barcelona. That run gave the young defender his first taste of global attention, and the following year he helped Estudiantes win the Argentine Primera División title in 2010.

Those performances made him a target for European clubs. Spartak Moscow came first, a short and relatively low-profile spell in Russia, before Sporting CP in Portugal gave him a platform in a more visible league. His two years in Lisbon turned him from a promising Argentine defender into a player Manchester United was willing to pay £16 million for in 2014. [edit]

Manchester United signed Rojo in August 2014, and he walked straight into a defence rebuilding under Louis van Gaal. His first season brought 22 Premier League appearances, and the second brought the FA Cup in 2015-16. The 2016-17 campaign under José Mourinho was his most productive: United won the Community Shield, the EFL Cup and the UEFA Europa League, with Rojo featuring across all three competitions. In total he made 76 Premier League appearances for the club, scoring once and assisting once.

Minutes became harder to find after that treble of trophies, and in January 2020 he returned to Estudiantes on loan. A permanent move to Boca Juniors followed in February 2021, where he spent several seasons as a senior presence in the defence. A spell at Racing followed, which ended with him deciding not to continue at the club, before an official return to Estudiantes in 2026. As of that season Transfermarkt listed his market value at €125,000, a figure that reflects a career in its final phase rather than any drop in standing.

On the international stage, Argentina first called him up in 2011. He earned 61 caps over eight years, started through the 2014 World Cup run to the final against Germany, finished as a Copa América runner-up in 2015 and 2016, and played at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. A reported CONMEBOL eligibility question around his later club registration was resolved in his favour according to some reports, though the details remain unconfirmed. [edit]

Rojo carries the look of a classic Argentine defender: tall, broad, left-footed, with a shaved head or short crop for most of his career. On the pitch his style is combative rather than elegant, a player who defends the front post and steps into midfield when the ball turns over. English audiences remember him as a squad man at United rather than a star, which is roughly how he has been perceived everywhere: reliable, occasionally rash, never the headline.

His social media presence is measured. The Instagram account is official and bilingual, with a welcome message rather than a brand slogan, and the content leans on club and country rather than lifestyle. He does not cultivate a persona, and the media have generally treated him as a footballer first and a personality not at all. [edit]

iFANN has not yet collected fame data for Marcos Rojo, so no ranking placement is available for him as of the October 2026 data cycle. He is also not on the September 2026 iFAMOUS Rankings flagship list. His visibility rests on a specific kind of recognition: the Manchester United years made him familiar to Premier League audiences, and the 2014 World Cup final made him familiar to Argentine ones.

The fanbase around him has no formal name. It is instead a loose coalition of Estudiantes supporters, Boca Juniors followers from his 2021 to 2025 spell, and Argentina national team watchers who remember the 2014 run. His Instagram following of roughly 4 million is the clearest measure of reach, and the comment sections tend to fill with La Plata and Boca supporters rather than organised fan campaigns. There is no documented fan project, no coordinated streaming push, and no inside ritual beyond the usual matchday chatter. What exists is a steady, local loyalty rather than a global fandom. [edit]

Rojo's full name is Faustino Marcos Alberto Rojo, which explains why Argentine match programmes sometimes list him differently from the English ones. He is left-footed, a rarity among centre-backs at the top level, and that footedness is the main reason managers kept using him at left-back as well as in the middle.

His Instagram bio is bilingual, opening with a line in Spanish and then repeating it in English: a small nod to a career split between South America and Europe. He follows 918 accounts and has posted 1,289 times, numbers that suggest a player who uses the platform steadily rather than constantly.

One story fans still retell involves the 2009 Club World Cup final against Barcelona, when a teenage Rojo found himself on the same pitch as Lionel Messi, then at the height of his powers. Rojo would later become Messi's Argentina teammate, and the two shared a dressing room at the 2014 World Cup final. [edit]

Rojo was born and raised in La Plata, and his family background has stayed largely out of the public record. He has not spoken in detail about his parents or siblings in interviews, and no reliable source identifies a spouse or children. What is documented is his attachment to La Plata itself: he returned to Estudiantes on loan in 2020 and again in 2026, and the club remains the anchor of his personal as well as professional life. [edit]

Rojo's career is tied to Estudiantes de La Plata, Sporting CP, Manchester United, Boca Juniors and the Argentina national team. At United he played under Louis van Gaal and José Mourinho. With Argentina he shared a dressing room with Lionel Messi, Javier Mascherano and Ángel Di María during the 2014 World Cup run. [edit]

No reliable source documents Marcos Rojo's romantic relationships. Search interest in a "Marcos Rojo wife" exists, but no credible outlet identifies a spouse, partner, or dating history, and no start or end dates can be confirmed. As of 2026 his relationship status is therefore unknown. [edit]

Marcos Rojo's earnings have come almost entirely from football contracts. The £16 million Manchester United transfer in 2014 brought a significant wage increase, and his five and a half years at Old Trafford formed the core of his wealth. Later moves to Boca Juniors and back to Estudiantes were on smaller salaries, consistent with the Argentine league's wage structure.

Endorsements have been modest by Premier League standards. There is no major global brand partnership on record, and his commercial profile has always been tied to his clubs rather than to him as an individual. Property holdings in Argentina and England are the likely main non-football assets, though none are publicly documented in detail.

The iFANN Editorial Team's analysis of his contract history, transfer fees and assets points to a current figure of approximately $8 million as of 2026. That estimate reflects a solid top-level career rather than a superstar's earnings, and it is unlikely to grow much further now that he is in the closing seasons of his playing days. [edit]

Rojo won the Copa Libertadores with Estudiantes in 2009 and the Argentine Primera División in 2010. At Manchester United he collected the FA Cup in 2016, then the Community Shield, EFL Cup and UEFA Europa League in 2017. With Argentina he finished as a World Cup runner-up in 2014 and a Copa América runner-up in 2015 and 2016. [edit]