Angola
Despite being eligible for the Portuguese national side, Marques pledged his allegiance to the country of his birth, Angola. Marques played for Angola in the 2006 World Cup, Where he played against Mexico, Iran and against the country he was brought up in Portugal with Angola finishing third in their group. He also played in the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, in which he played in all of Angola's games.
Marques was called up by Angola for the 2010 African Cup of Nations, where his country Angola were the host nation of the tournament, during this spell he was unavailable to play for Leeds. On 30 December 2009, Marques played in the 1–0 loss to Estonia, which was a friendly match as a warm up for the Cup of Nations. Then he played in the 1–1 draw against Gambia. Angola's first game of the African Cup Of Nations was against Mali. Marques started the match against Mali, Angola were 4–0 up with 15 minutes to go, but conceded 4 in the last 15 minutes and it finished 4–4 with the likes of Seydou Keita and Frederic Kanoute getting on the score sheet for Mali. Marques played the whole game for Angola in their 2–0 win over Malawi and featured as a starter in the 0–0 draw with Algeria, a game which enabled Angola to progress to the quarter-finals as winners of their group.
Marques' tournament came to an end when Angola were knocked out in the quarter finals after losing 1–0 against Ghana with Asamoah Gyan scoring the winner. Rui Marques returned to Leeds from the African Cup of Nations with an injury. As a result Leeds brought in additional centre-back cover in the form of Neill Collins, with Marques not even making the bench when he returned from injury. Rui Marques was released in May 2010 following the end of his contract.
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