José Marcello Zé Marcello

From Niterói to the mat

José Marcello Rodrigues was born on 17 March 1971 in Niterói, a city across the bay from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A natural athlete from early childhood, he competed across multiple disciplines — volleyball, football, handball, athletics, surfing, and snowboarding — becoming particularly accomplished in surfing at regional level.

At the age of twelve he added karate to his schedule, training and competing for seven years in a discipline that would lay a foundation of structure and respect that remained with him throughout his career on the mats.

Jiu-jitsu came to Zé by way of the surf community. In December 1991 he began working at the Redley surf shop in Niterói, where two colleagues — known as "Marcão" and "Cicinho" — were active BJJ practitioners. Their enthusiasm was contagious. In January 1992, aged twenty, Zé stepped onto a mat for the first time.

Within two months he entered his first inter-club tournament and submitted a heavier blue belt. That result confirmed what he already felt. He was home.

The making of a competitor

Zé's development was rapid. He earned his blue belt in just six months from his first coach, Luiz Paulo, and progressed through the ranks with the same instructor until brown belt. He competed actively in the local Liga Niteroiense de Jiu-Jitsu and on the national circuit, building a competition record that placed him among the top grapplers in Brazil through the mid-to-late 1990s.

The decisive relationship in his BJJ formation was with Sérgio "Bolão" Souza — a black belt of the legendary Brazilian Top Team, one of the most decorated teams in the sport's history. Training under Bolão sharpened Zé's technical game and connected him to a lineage that runs directly back through Carlson Gracie to the founders of the art.

In December 1997, Sérgio Bolão presented Zé with his black belt, in a ceremony led by the late Carlson Gracie himself. That same year, Zé had claimed the IBJJF World Championship at brown belt — the highest level of competition in the sport. The timing was not coincidental. The belt came when it was earned.

Building BJJ in Europe

Zé Marcello is recognised in Europe as one of the genuine pioneers of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on the continent. His work began in 1998 — just months after receiving his black belt — when a student, Yannick Beven, invited him to teach a workshop in Biarritz, France. That single session opened a door he would spend the next decade walking through.

From 1998 onwards, Zé made regular tours of Europe each year, teaching seminars and developing practitioners across France, Portugal, the UK, and beyond at a time when BJJ in Europe was still in its infancy. He was not visiting as a celebrity. He was building foundations.

In 2006, Zé made the permanent move to England, settling in the areas around Slough and Milton Keynes and opening his first British academies. The network grew steadily — Watford, Luton, Peterborough, Norwich, Eastbourne, Belfast — as instructors he had developed began leading their own clubs under his guidance.

In 2012, combining two lifelong passions, Zé accepted an invitation to lead a jiu-jitsu academy inside Quiksilver Boardriders in Ericeira, Portugal — one of Europe's premier surf destinations. He remained for two years, laying the groundwork for what would become the Portuguese chapter of his academy network.

The instructor above the competitor

After competing at the highest levels of the sport through the late 1990s and early 2000s, Zé stepped back from competition to concentrate entirely on teaching. The decision reflected a clarity of purpose that defines his approach: the mat is a place for development, not performance.

More than fifty of his students have reached black belt rank. Thousands more have trained under him — complete beginners who had never heard of jiu-jitsu, parents who came looking for something for their children, and serious practitioners who trained for competition. He teaches the morning class. He teaches the evening class. He is on the mat, not in the office.