Thursday 7 December 2017

THE UNITED NATIONS OF TORQUAY

Torquay United's new loan signing, Icelandic Under-21 defender Axel Andresson who signs from Reading for an initial month, joins what is a fairly illustrious list of non-UK players who have appeared for the Gulls over the years.

Andresson's arrival at Plainmoor takes the list of the club's Icelandic representatives up to three, which includes Ivar Ingimarsson and Oli Gottskalksson. Certain parallels could be drawn between Ingimarsson, who also played for Andresson's parent club as well as Brentford.

Unsurprisingly, given the geographical approximately of the respective countries, the Republic of Ireland and France provide the highest numbers - which includes present squad members Ruairi Keating from the Emerald Isle and  Vincent Dorel and Guy Gnaboyou from across the English Channel.

Other notable names on the list include player-managers such as Percy Mackrill - the club's first ever Football League manager - and Don O'Riordan, who led United to the brink of a Wembley Play-off final in the 1993-94 season.

Long serving club stalwarts as Jimmy Dunne who had two spells at Plainmoor in the 1960s and 1970s and Tony Bedeau - a star of the 1990s and 2000s - also feature.

A number of loan players also feature in the list such as Jason Roberts and Alan Lee who both went on to have good careers at Premier League and Championship level, as well as representing Grenada and Republic of Ireland respectively.

And then there is the club's record sale Rodney Jack, who left the Gulls for Crewe Alexandra in 1998 for a fee of £650,000 - which remains a club record to this day.

Republic of Ireland: Jerry Matier, Billy Hayes, Jimmy Dunne, Ben Murphy, Donal Murphy, Jimmy Holmes, Alan McLoughlin, Don O'Riordan, Pat O'Toole, Alan Lee, Daryl McMahon, Patrick O'Flynn, Aiden O'Brien, Ruairi Keating.

France: Jean-Pierre Simb, Jules Mendy, Habib Sissoko, Khalid Chalqi, Morike Sako, Mamadou Sow, Carl Priso, Bertrand Bossu, Damien Mozika, Ollivier Guegnen, Vincent Dorel, Guy Gnaboyou.

Australia: Paul Harries, Aaron Downes, Giancarlo Gallifuoco.

Iceland: Ivar Ingimarsson, Oli Gottkalksson, Axel Andresson.

Grenada: Tony Bedeau, ** Jason Roberts. **

Jamaica: Paul Hall, ** Darren Moore **

South Africa: Percy Mackrill, Anton Greyling.

Barbados: Gregory Goodridge, Mark Hall. **

United States of America. Jurgen Sommer, Brendan Moore.

Canada: Simon Rayner.

Cyprus: Danis Salman*.

Gambia: Mustapha Carayol **,

Germany: Mark Jermyn.*

Ghana: Benny Laryea*.

Kenya: Taiwo Atieno. **

Spain: Jose Mateu Pinto.

Portugal: Bruno Meirelles.

St Vincent and the Grenadies: Rodney Jack.

Holland: Arjan Van Heusden.

Denmark; Riffi Haddaoui.

New Zealand: Rory Fallon. 

Zambia: Neil Gregory*.

* Denotes UK citizen born in different country.
** Born in UK, but represented country of heritage at international level.