12/8/2023 0 Comments John trevino pmetro parkInternationally, he was the subject of interest from both Nigeria and South Korea before opting to play for Spain at under-19 level. His move to Real in 2016 came amid interest from then-fellow La Liga side Mallorca. However, it was not the only stepping stone on his journey to the Bernabeu, as he rejoined Sporting Ciutat de Palma and went on to play for Majorcan clubs La Salle and AD Penya Arrabal. He remained in contact with former Rovers youth player Josh Solomon-Davies, now a St Lucia international who plays for non-league Marine, while his father also wrote to Tranmere to thank them for their role in his development. Park did not cut all ties with the club, though. And you're like, where? 'Back to Spain.' Well how does that work?" "It literally was a coach saying 'Marvin has gone'. We lost him overnight," Shaun Garnett added. "He played for us on the Sunday and he went back to Spain on the Monday. With interest in Park growing, Rovers signed the player up until he was 16, but a change in family circumstances led to his sudden departure. "The standard at Tranmere has always been good but to go from here to Real Madrid - where do you hear anything like that?" 'Gone overnight' I played with Pat Nevin, who was a quiet lad, but Marvin just didn't speak - that was something new to us. "People who don't understand football wouldn't get why being quiet is a problem. "He would walk down on his own, sit on the coach on his own and you would welcome him to training and he didn't say a word," he said. However, despite Park's "abundance" of talent, Shaun Garnett initially had reservations over how far he could progress. West Ham's Aaron Cresswell and Everton's Tom Davies are recent examples of the success of Tranmere's academy production line, with Dale Jennings also notably switching to Bayern Munich before drifting into non-league on his return to England. If he had stayed in England, the big clubs would have come and got him," Garnett added. There was interest from Liverpool, Everton, Wigan, Blackburn and Manchester United. Park was part of a promising crop at Rovers that also contained Coventry City's Declan Drysdale and Fulham's England youth international Sonny Hilton.Īnd after a series of impressive displays, which included helping Rovers win the Keele tournament - one of the UK's biggest international youth football competitions - Park's reputation started to grow. The way he played football was unbelievable and the total opposite of his personality." "He was a mouse in training but when he got on the pitch he was a lion. Some players don't look fast but seem to glide past people and that was what he was like. "He had pace, technique, he could play with both feet and he was strong. "He was a shy, young little lad who did not speak much English but as soon as you saw him play you could tell he was different to all the rest," said Neil Garnett. It proved the perfect backdrop to his next steps in the game.Īfter joining the club in 2009, aged nine, Park spent two of his three years at Tranmere as an attacking midfielder or winger under the coaching of Neil Garnett, the brother of then-academy boss Shaun, the former Rovers defender. Then his parents moved to England for work - settling just over a mile from Tranmere's Prenton Park ground. So how did a player who sparkled on the Wirral end up at the 13-time champions of Europe? 'A mouse in training, a lion on the pitch'īorn to a Nigerian father and a South Korean mother, Park started his football journey with Sporting Ciutat de Palma in his native Majorca.
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