Jose Marques is a Sports and Exercise Medicine physician based in Lisbon, Portugal. He is working at the Portuguese Football Federation as the team physician of the youth male teams. He is the Portuguese College of Sports Medicine president and the first registered specialist in this field in Portugal. With Jose, I talked about his challenges in building a profession from the ground up, we talked about his drive, and the need to have a passion for pushing forward.     

To break the ice and get to know Jose better, I asked him what would be his first song on the mixtape of his life. Redemption Song, the version by Johnny Cash.

I have great respect for the risk Jose took to follow his dream. He may not have known what he was getting into. Still, he is definitely building a strong foundation that helps future sports and exercise medicine specialists follow their passion and dream. With his broad interest in sports and his will not be a single specialist, this will surely succeed. I especially liked his analogy of driving a car, which - for me - signifies the freedom and responsibility we all have to build our profession.