Marcus Anthony Gayle (born 27 September 1970) is a
football coach and former professional player who serves as club ambassador at
Brentford.
Gayle's primary position was as a
striker but also played as a
winger and
central defender
In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring.
Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...
towards the end of his career. He notably played in the
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 Fo ...
for
Wimbledon and
Watford
Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne.
Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...
, he also played in the
Scottish Premiership
The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...
for
Rangers and in the
Football League for
Brentford and
Aldershot Town
Aldershot Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in the spring ...
before he finished his playing career with non-league side
AFC Wimbledon. He is a member of the Brentford Hall of Fame and made 230 appearances in two spells with the club. Born in England, he won 14 caps for
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
and was a key player for his country at the
1998 World Cup tournament.
After retiring as a player, he became manager of the
AFC Wimbledon reserve team for three years before taking charge of
Staines Town
Staines Town Football Club was a semi-professional Association football, football club based in Staines-upon-Thames, Middlesex.
History
Early days
Staines Town FC was founded in 1892 and was known under various names including ''Staines F.C ...
in 2012.
Club career
Brentford
Born
Hammersmith, London, Gayle started his career at
Brentford in 1988, scoring 27 goals in 194 appearances for the Bees.
He was loaned to
KuPS
Kuopion Palloseura (or KuPS) is a Finnish football club, based in the ninth most populated city of Finland, Kuopio. KuPS plays in Finland's Premier League, Veikkausliiga.
KuPS has won the Finnish championship six times, the Finnish Cup 4 time ...
in 1990,
before becoming a regular player in the Brentford side under new manager
Phil Holder in
1990–91
Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...
,
when the Bees qualified for the playoffs but lost to eventual promotion winners
Tranmere Rovers
Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...
in the semi finals.
He played 33 games in the Third Division that season, scoring six goals.
He was a key part in their Third Division title success for the
1991–92 season, scoring 6 goals in 38 games to give Brentford a place in the new First Division,
as the old Second Division would be known from the start of the
1992–93
Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...
campaign due to the creation of the
FA Premier League.
The 1992–93 season looked as though it would be a successful one for the Bees, who entered the new year in 10th place and on the brink of the playoff zone, with all the talk at
Griffin Park being about a second successive promotion and top division football for the first time since 1947. However, a collapse in the second half of the season saw the Bees relegated. Gayle initially remained loyal to the Bees, but on 24 March 1994 he linked up with his old Brentford striker partner
Gary Blissett in a £250,000 move to Wimbledon, who were in the process of finishing a creditable sixth place in the Premier League. In May 2015, Gayle was inducted into the Brentford Hall of Fame.
Wimbledon
Gayle played an influential part during the nineties, He made his debut for Wimbledon two days after joining them as they beat
Leeds United
Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...
1–0.
He played in their final 10 games of the
1993–94, helping the Dons to 7 wins and 2 draws but did not score.
He scored his first two goals in
1994–95,
playing 25 games as the Dons finished ninth.
He missed just four league games in the
1995–96 season,
scoring five goals and helping Wimbledon finish 14th.
In his best season for the Dons,
1996–97, he scored a total of thirteen goals,
eight league goals as the Dons finished eighth in the Premier League and reached the semi finals of both domestic cups.
He also scored the winning goal for the Dons in a surprise
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
fourth round replay 1–0 win over
Manchester United in February 1997.
1997–98 was less successful. The Dons began the season well and were in the top five for much of the first half of the season, but a dismal second half of the campaign saw them finish 15th.
Gayle was a regular player once again, appearing 30 times in the league, but scored just twice.
Gayle's form was good enough to make his debut for Jamaica in February vs Brazil in the gold cup and later featuring in the 1998 world cup in France that summer.
He was their top scorer in
1998–99, scoring 10 league goals,
but once again their good form tailed away to a late season slump and they finished 16th.
He did manage seven goals in
1999–2000,
but defeat to
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
on the final day of the season and a surprise win for relegation rivals
Bradford City
Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes.
...
over
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
meant that Wimbledon's 14-year stay in the top flight was over. In seven years with the Dons, Gayle played 285 games scoring 48 goals.
Rangers
Gayle initially stayed loyal to the Dons in spite of their relegation, playing 32 league games and scoring three times in the
2000–01 campaign before he finally departed on 9 March 2001 in a £1million move to
Scottish Premier League giants
Rangers.
He made his debut against Dundee United, adding just another three more appearances,
before moving back down south to join Gianluca Vialli's new look Watford side for £1million.
Watford
He started off brightly by scoring five goals in first 14 matches until a back injury hampered his season.
He was as expected to leave, along with most of Vialli's other unsuccessful signings, in the summer of 2002. However, he re-emerged as a centre-back under new manager
Ray Lewington
Raymond Lewington (born 7 September 1956) is an English retired footballer. He was most recently assistant manager of Watford.
Born in London, he started his playing career in the city at Chelsea. He went on to play for Vancouver Whitecaps, W ...
and won the
Player of the Season award that year.
He also scored in the club's 2–1 defeat to
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
in the FA Cup semi-finals and part of the group of players that deferred some of their wages to help the club out of their financial difficulties.
Another good season followed in
2003–04 forging a good partnership alongside captain Neil cox, but injury plagued his
2004–05, and he left Watford two days after the sacking of Lewington in March 2005.
Return to Brentford
![Marcus_Gayle_warming_up_for_Brentford,_April_2006](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Marcus_Gayle_warming_up_for_Brentford%2C_April_2006.jpg)
He re-joined Brentford, his first club and made 37 appearances for the Bees helping them to two consecutive play off semi finals, scoring twice.
Gayle was released from his Brentford contract on 17 May 2006.
Aldershot Town
He signed for
Aldershot Town
Aldershot Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in the spring ...
on 2 July 2006.
He scored the first hat-trick of his career for the Shots on 14 October 2006, coming on as a second-half substitute to score three times in just 9 mins 30 seconds against
Kidderminster Harriers. In February 2007 Gayle damaged his ACL knee ligaments and cartilage, but still made the last few matches of the season he was released by Aldershot at the end of
2006–07 season scoring seven times in 27 appearances.
AFC Wimbledon
Gayle was signed for
AFC Wimbledon in May 2007 by former Aldershot manager
Terry Brown, making him only the second player to play competitively for both AFC Wimbledon and the old Wimbledon (the first being
Jermaine Darlington) and, after scoring against
Maidenhead United in the
FA Trophy, becoming the first player to have scored for both incarnations of the South West London club and helping them to promotion to the conference south before retiring from playing that summer.
International career
Gayle was capped by England at
U18 level but later decided to switch allegiance and play for Jamaica who he was eligible to represent through his father.
When a player at Wimbledon, Gayle signed a contract in June 1997 with a clause that restricted him to only represent England at international level. Horace Reid of the
Jamaica Football Federation complained to
FIFA about the restriction and the FIFA Player Status Committee refused to recognise the clause and allowed Gayle to change allegiance to Jamaica in January 1998.
Gayle was
capped
In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...
14 times for
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
and played at the
1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup
The 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the fourth edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF).
The tournament was once again held in the United States, in Los Angeles, Miami, and Oakla ...
in United States and the
1998 FIFA World Cup in France, Jamaica's first ever World Cup finals.
He played in the final group H match against Japan which Jamaica won by 2–1.
Gayle was made captain the following year against Canada and held that honour for a year before retiring.
Managerial career and backroom roles
AFC Wimbledon
![marcusgayle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Marcusgayle.jpg)
He announced his retirement from competitive football after AFC Wimbledon sealed promotion to the
Conference South following a 2–1 Isthmian League Premier play-off final victory over
Staines Town
Staines Town Football Club was a semi-professional Association football, football club based in Staines-upon-Thames, Middlesex.
History
Early days
Staines Town FC was founded in 1892 and was known under various names including ''Staines F.C ...
.
He is presently working towards his coaching badges and in September 2008 took the role of
AFC Wimbledon reserve team manager. In his first year of taking over he guided his talented squad to two cup finals, winning the suburban league challenge cup and runners up in the suburban challenge shield in 2009. Runners up in the league came in 2010. In 2011, his reserves collected the league trophy for the very first time and also the champions cup, very unlucky not to pick up the treble after losing to South Park in the Suburban Premier Cup. Marcus is a member of the Wimbledon Old Players Association and has played for Wimbledon's Masters side and Old Players XI.
Staines Town
On 15 May 2012, it was announced that Marcus had been appointed as first team manager of
Staines Town
Staines Town Football Club was a semi-professional Association football, football club based in Staines-upon-Thames, Middlesex.
History
Early days
Staines Town FC was founded in 1892 and was known under various names including ''Staines F.C ...
. In his first season as manager he guided his young team to safety in the Conference South Division whilst picking up the Middlesex Senior Cup,
the 10th time Staines Town have won the competition. The second season brought an impressive 8th-place finish (Highest in club history) and reaching the 1st round proper of the FA Cup vs Brentford.
December 2014 Marcus was relieved of his duties due to a bad run of games.
Personal life
In 2015 Marcus graduated from the EBM (Effective Board Member) course sponsored by the PFA and was later appointed a Board Member for Berkshire & Buckinghamshire FA. In January 2020, he was appointed club ambassador at Brentford.
Until 2010, Gayle owned a designer clothes shop in Fulham, London called 3 Tribes.
Career statistics
Club
International
:''Scores and results list Jamaica's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Gayle goal.''
Honours
As a player
Brentford
*
Football League Third Division
The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following th ...
:
1991–92
AFC Wimbledon
*
Isthmian League Premier Division play-offs:
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
As a manager
Staines Town
*
Middlesex Senior Cup
The Middlesex Senior Cup is the most prestigious football cup competition in the historic county of Middlesex, England. The competition is run mainly for non-League clubs in the region, although league clubs have been known to enter the compe ...
: 2012–13
As an individual
*
Watford Player of the Season
Watford Football Club are an English football club, from Watford, Hertfordshire. Founded in 1881 as Watford Rovers, the club has competed in the Football League since 1920 and since the 2015–16 season have competed in the Premier League. ...
:
2002–03
*
Brentford Hall of Fame
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gayle, Marcus
1970 births
English footballers
Jamaican footballers
English people of Jamaican descent
Jamaica international footballers
Brentford F.C. players
Wimbledon F.C. players
Rangers F.C. players
Watford F.C. players
Aldershot Town F.C. players
AFC Wimbledon players
Premier League players
National League (English football) players
English Football League players
Scottish Premier League players
Veikkausliiga players
1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players
1998 FIFA World Cup players
2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players
Kuopion Palloseura players
English football managers
Jamaican football managers
National League (English football) managers
Footballers from Hammersmith
Living people
Staines Town F.C. managers
AFC Wimbledon non-playing staff
Black British sportsmen
Association football forwards
Brentford F.C. non-playing staff
Expatriate footballers in Finland