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The Spanish quartet in Puerto Rico - Mario Martínez (30th November, 2017)

That's right - there are four Spaniards playing at Puerto Rico Football Club, a franchise that resides in the second division (NASL). And one of them is Yuma, the former Rayo youth graduate and cousin of Antonio Amaya and Iván Amaya.

But what about the other three?


The American dream is all about doing better than your parents. Chus Martínez, a defender, never even made it to professional football - the high point of his career was playing for Numancia in the Segunda B between 1989-93.

In contrast, midfielder Mario Martínez made his professional debut at the age of 18. Also a product of hometown Numancia's youth system Mario first appeared with its first team during the 2002-03 season in the Segunda. It took him several seasons, including two loan spells to Segunda B sides Las Palmas in 2006 and Zamora in 2007, until he finally broke into the first team. Under Gonzalo Arconada, He would go on to play 34 times scoring three goals in the 2007-08 season as the Soria side returned to La Liga after a three-year absence.

Mario celebrating scoring that goal. On the opening day of the 2008-09 campaign, Barcelona lost in a shock 1-0 defeat at Numancia. He scored the winning goal.


After playing in only 13 league matches out of 42 in the 2010-11 campaign (out of which only one of them was a full 90-minute appearance), 26-year-old Mario was released by Numancia, signing with Real Unión in the Segunda B. He did not settle with any club or in any country in the following years, representing Olympiakos Nicosia in Cyprus (2012), Baku in Azerbaijan (2013-14), Tarazona in the Tercera (2014-15), Jaguares de Córdoba in Columbia (2015), Club Blooming in Bolivia (2015-16), Boavista in Portugal (2016), Kissamikos in Greece (2016-17) and finally Puerto Rico since the start of this calendar year.

Today's post is quite short, simply because I wanted to write something instead of nothing. Apologies for that - normal length posts will resume tomorrow...
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