Marcus Bettinelli

Marcus Bettinelli played for Fulham from 2006 until 2021. He has been on the clubs books since he was 13 and has been called up to the England U21 squad on several occasions. After successful loan spells at Dartford and Accrington Stanley, he broke through to the first team in 2014-15 and earned two England call-ups during his stay with Fulham in 2018.

Before Fulham
Marcus was born in Camberwell, London and is the son of Fulham's goalkeeping coach Vic Bettinelli. He played for Crystal Palace until he was 12 where he was released. He then had a trail with Arsenal before moving to Fulham.

Fulham (2006-2021)
Marcus joined Fulham as an U14 player ahead of the 2006-07 season. Unfortunately, his first couple of years at the club were hampered by injuries though he benefited massively from being on the full-time scholars’ programme as his goalkeeping came on leaps and bounds. He was made captain of the U18 squad in his first year in the side, and was voted as best goalkeeper in the 2010 Sparkasse & VGH Cup indoors tournament in Germany. He has since spent time no loan at Dartford in 2012-13 and Accrington Stanley in 2013-14.

On Boxing Day 2013, he was recalled to take a place on the substitutes bench away to Norwich, after Maarten Stekelenburg became injured shortly before. Another spot on the bench followed shortly in a shocking 6-0 loss at Hull before he was sent back to Accrington on loan until the end of the season. On 10 January 2014, Marcus signed a new deal with Fulham which would keep him at the club until 30 June 2016. His successful loan spell at Accrington Stanley was rewarded in May 2014 when he was awarded their Young Player of the Season award.

He made his first team debut on 26 August 2014 in a League Cup fixture against Brentford in which he kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 victory. His first clean sheet in the league came on 1 October when Fulham thumped Bolton 4-0. A welcome surprise came for Marcus on 6 November 2014, as he was called up to the England U21 squad for the first time.

In what was a very successful start to his Fulham career, Marcus made his first real blunder when he dropped a ball over his own goal line in an FA Cup loss at home to Sunderland in February 2015. He redeemed himself over the following few matches, including a man-of-the-match performance in a well-fought 2-0 victory away at Huddersfield Town on 21 March 2015 including saving a penalty after Fulham were reduced to ten men.

In the off-season in 2015, Marcus was heavily linked to a move away to London rivals Chelsea, but despite this he signed a new four year contract with Fulham much to the delight of the fans. Unfortunately, he sustained a bad knee injury only a week later in a 2-1 defeat at Hull City, whereby striker Matt Smith fell awkwardly into his leg who also injured himself in the process.

He made his return to first team action in a 1-1 draw at Birmingham City. The 2016-17 season saw Marcus lose his spot to new signing David Button from Brentford. After only playing in three FA Cup matches (including a 4-1 victory against Hull City in which he saved two penalties), he finally broke back into the starting lineup in April 2017 after Button was demoted to the bench.

After a disappointing end to an otherwise successful season with a play-off loss to Reading, Marcus yet again started as the number 2 keeper to David Button for the start of 2017-18. However, once more he battled back to take the starting spot and never looked back as he played his part in the club record 23-match unbeaten league run from December 2017 to May 2018 and topped it off with promotion to the Premier League via the Play-offs. He is remembered after the Final for celebrating with a flare thrown onto the pitch after full time.

After a busy transfer window for the club in the summer of 2018 in preparing for life in the Premier League, Fulham signed two Spanish keepers in Fabri and Sergio Rico. This left Marcus in the cold for the opening few weeks of the season, before he took over as number one a short while after.

After an impressive performance which included a penalty save during a 2-2 draw away to Brighton in front of the onlooking Gareth Southgate, he was called up to the full England squad days later on 4 September 2018 for upcoming friendlies against Spain and Switzerland.

He was later dropped for the rest of the 2018-19 season for loanee 'keeper Sergio Rico. After the clubs' relegation back to the Championship he once again started the season before being dropped once more, this time by acadmey product Marek Rodák who firmly kept his placeand aided Fulham in a quick return to the Premier League.

Marcus was loaned out to Championship side Middlesbrough for the duration of the 2020-21 season. He was offered a new contract by Fulham in the close season of 2021, but could not commit without a guarantee that he would be the number one goalkeeper, and so it was with a heavy heart that he left the club he had been at for fifteen years upon expiry of his contract in July 2021.

After Fulham
On 28 July 2021, Marcus joined West London neighbours Chelsea as their third-choice goalkeeper on a free transfer.