Marcelo Flores Dorrell (born 1 October 2003) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

or winger for

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. Born in Canada, he represents the

Mexico national team The Mexico national football team () represents Mexico in international football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation (). It competes as a member of CONCACAF. Mexico has qualified to seventeen World Cups and has qualified consec ...

Early life

Flores was born in Canada to a Canadian mother of English descent, and Mexican former footballer,

Rubén Flores Rubén Flores Gómez (born 3 October 1968) is a Mexican former professional footballer and was most recently the manager of the Cayman Islands women's national team. Playing career Flores had a stint in the Mexican Primera División with Atla ...

. He was raised in Georgetown,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. As his father was the manager of the Cayman Islands women's national football team, Flores spent some time on the islands, where he was invited to a training camp by

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

youth development coach Steve Foley. He impressed during the week long camp, and joined the Ipswich Town academy. In 2019, Flores joined the

Arsenal academy The Arsenal Academy was a military academy in Columbia, South Carolina, originally established in 1842 as an independent school by the state of South Carolina. In 1845, the academy became a component of the South Carolina Military Academy (now Th ...

on a free transfer. He made a bright start to the 2020–21 campaign with Arsenal's under-18s, scoring three goals in two games.

Club career

After training with the first team, he signed his first professional contract in October 2020. Shortly after, he was included in

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

's "Next Generation 2020", highlighting the best young players in the world. He was called up to the

first team for the first time on April 4, 2022, making the bench for their match against Crystal Palace, although he did not appear in the match as a substitute. On 20 July 2022, Flores joined

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

club

Real Oviedo Real Oviedo is a Spanish football club based in Oviedo, Asturias. Founded on 26 March 1926 as a result of the merger of two clubs who had maintained a large sporting rivalry for years in the city: ''Real Stadium Club Ovetense'' and ''Real Club De ...

on a season-long loan. On 15 August 2022, he made his professional debut in a league match against

FC Andorra Futbol Club Andorra is a professional football club based in Andorra la Vella, Andorra, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. The club was founded in 1942 and currently plays its home fixtu ...

in a 1–0 loss, coming on as a substitute.

International career

Flores was eligible to play for either

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. He was first called up to the England under-16 side in 2019, but decided to join up with the Mexico under-16 team that same year, playing every game at the Montaigu Tournament. In December 2020, Flores accepted a call up to a Canada camp that would take place in January 2021, but later pulled out to remain with Arsenal. On 18 June 2021, Flores was named to Canada's provisional 60-man squad for the

2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 16th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's soccer championship of the North, Central American, and Caribbean region organized by CONCACAF. The tournament was originally scheduled t ...

. In September 2021, Flores featured for Mexico's under-20 side in a double-header against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. In November, Flores was called up by Luis Ernesto Pérez to participate at the 2021 Revelations Cup, scoring two goals in three appearances, where Mexico won the competition. Later that month, senior national team manager

Gerardo Martino Gerardo Daniel "Tata" Martino (born 20 November 1962) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player. Martino played mostly for Newell's Old Boys in his native Rosario. He holds the record of appearances with the team playing a ...

expressed the possibility of calling up Flores for the friendly match against

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

on 8 December. On 29 November,

confirmed that Flores had received his first senior call up. Flores eventually made his senior national team debut in a friendly match against Chile, making his debut as an 83rd-minute substitute in the 2–2 draw. In May 2022, Flores committed to representing Mexico internationally, as he was still eligible to switch to representing Canada or England, having only participated in friendlies. On June 11, he appeared in a

2022–23 CONCACAF Nations League The 2022–23 CONCACAF Nations League is the second season of the CONCACAF Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 41 member associations of CONCACAF. The group phase of the tourna ...

match against

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

, officially cap tying him to Mexico.

Personal life

His two sisters, Silvana and

Tatiana Tatiana (or Tatianna, also romanized as Tatyana, Tatjana, Tatijana, etc.) is a female name of Sabine-Roman origin that became widespread in Eastern Europe. Variations * be, Тацця́на, Tatsiana * bg, Татяна, Tatyana * germa ...

, are also footballers, and both moved from

to Chelsea in the summer of 2020.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Mexico U20 *

Revelations Cup The Revelations Cup is an international association football tournament organized by Mexican Football Federation (FMF) for men's under-20 national teams. The inaugural tournament took place in November 2021 in Guanajuato, Mexico. Locations ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Individual *Revelations Cup Best Player: 2021

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Flores, Marcelo 2003 births Living people People from Halton Hills Mexican men's footballers Mexico men's international footballers Mexico men's youth international footballers Canadian men's soccer players Mexican people of Canadian descent Mexican people of English descent Canadian people of Mexican descent Sportspeople of Mexican descent Men's association football midfielders Ipswich Town F.C. players Arsenal F.C. players Segunda División players Real Oviedo players Canadian expatriate men's soccer players Expatriate men's footballers in the Cayman Islands Soccer people from Ontario