Marcelo Floresplayer of the UANL Tigres, will finally fulfill his World Cup dream by being called up as one of the 26 players of the Canada team which was announced this Friday by coach Jesse March.
Flores ended up convincing the strategist of the “Maple Leaf” squad and after Javier Aguirre did not take him into account, he ended up accepting the invitation of the strategist of the Canadian team to try to make the most successful participation of this team in the history of the World Cuptaking advantage of the fact that he will be one of the co-hosts of the World Cup tournament.
Marcelo Flores was born on October 1, 2003 in the city of Georgetown, Ontario, Canada. His father is Mexican and his mother is Canadian, which allowed him to obtain triple nationality (Canadian, Mexican and British.
Marcelo Flores’ story with Mexico began in 2019, when he appeared on the radar of the Aztec team and since then the analysis began and dilemma of the player to determine which team to choose to play in a World Cup.
The first contact was with Guillermo Cantú, director of national teams, who was a partner of the player’s father (Rubén Flores) in Atlante when Marcelo was already in the lower forces of England’s Arsenal.
Cantú commented on that occasion that: “I spoke with the father and he told me that he had gone to Canada (where he was born Marcelo) and there the guy started playing. Football took him to Arsenal. I told my dad that maybe it would be convenient for us to see him here and he said yes.”
Memo Cantú then started the machinery of the Mexican national team by commenting about the player to Juan Carlos Ortega about a young Mexican player in England and that it was important to follow up.
Ortega transferred Marcelo to the U15 under Mario “Califas” Arteaga to follow him up, but at all times he felt far from his roots and When Marcelo Flores had his first training session with the Canadian team, he felt more identified with his culture,
The environment made him feel more at home and that he did not manage to fit fully into the environment of the Mexican team and furthermore, Canada provided active monitoring and included it in its final call.
It should be noted that the true Tigres player is originally from Georgetown, Ontario, although he had training in youth teams with Mexico since the under-15s.
The Canadian List
The Canadian team will be led by Alphonso Davies, who is recovering from an injury and has been the figure and icon of the team in recent years. Although he will probably miss the start of the World Cup, his participation is not in doubt for the following matches. Along with the Bayern Munich player, there will be Jonathan David, who plays for Juventus in Italy.
The Canadian Football Federation took advantage of the announcement to project the names of the 26 players on the CN Tower, uone of the main tourist attractions in Toronto, which at 553 meters high offers views of the World Cup stadium.
The World Cup list
Goalkeepers: Maxime Crépeau (Orlando City) Owen Goodman (Barnsley / Crystal Palace) Dayne St. Clair (Inter Miami)
Defenses: Moïse Bombito (Good) Derek Cornelius (Olympique de Marseille) Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich) Luc de Fougerolles (Fulham) Alistair Johnston (Celtic) Alfie Jones (Middlesbrough) Richie Laryea (Toronto FC) Niko Sigur (Hajduk Ruin up) Joel Waterman (Chicago Fire)
Midfielders: Ali Ahmed (Norwich City) Tajon Buchanan (Villarreal) Mathieu Choinière (LAFC) Stephen Eustáquio (Porto) Marcelo Flores (Tigres) Ismaël Koné (Sassuolo) Liam Millar (Hull City) Jonathan Osorio (Toronto FC) Nathan Saliba (Anderlecht) Jacob Shaffelburg (LAFC)
Forwards: Jonathan David (Juventus) Promise David (Union Saint-Gilloise) Cyle Larin (Mallorca) Tani Oluwaseyi (Villarreal)
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