Marcelino Elena
Marcelino Elena Sierra ( born September 26, 1971 in Gijón, Asturias ) is a retired Spanish footballer.
His most successful period he had as a player of RCD Mallorca, with which he penetrated to the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup and the Copa del Rey in 1999.
Club career
Career start in Gijón
Marcelino began his career in the youth of his home club Sporting Gijon. There he went through all the youth teams, before he made his professional debut in the Primera División celebrated in 1993. As a young local players he had it in chronic located in a relegation battle team hard and came in 2 ½ seasons to just 14 league appearances.
Successful time in Mallorca
In the winter transfer window of the season 1995/96 he then moved into the Segunda División to RCD Mallorca, where he was able to establish itself immediately as offensively strong central defender. In the first year he missed then with the standings four just under the rise, the one with rank three, however, was able to enter confidently into the following season.
In the season 1997/98 the promoted the then relatively unknown Héctor Cúper committed as a coach, who formed a powerful team. Around the player scaffold Carlos Roa, Iván Campo, Marcelino, Juan Carlos Valeron, Vicente Engonga and Gabriel Amato became Mallorca to the surprise team of the season and moved into the finals of the Copa del Rey, which one but after 1-1 in the regular season with five: 4 lost on penalties against FC Barcelona. In the league, we confirmed the success run with Table fifth and the associated move into international business. The Abwehrduo Campo - Marcelino played a great season, let behind Real Sociedad 's second fewest goals and was considered to play the most central defense in the league.
As a result of the great success turned out for the season 1998/99 a great bloodletting of the service providers a. Campo went to Real Madrid, Atletico Valeron and Amato took it to Scotland to Glasgow Rangers.
Against expectations, managed to Mallorca, to compensate for the disposal by a commitment of the then relatively unknown player Lauren Etame Mayer, Ariel Ibagaza, Leonardo Biagini and especially Dani García and to prolong the success of the previous season.
In the Primera Division they finished with three table will finish the best result in the club's history and created a place in the Champions League qualification. At the European level it made his, led by a towering Marcelino, the last time the discharged European Cup Winners' Cup the way to the final. In the semifinals, had already Chelsea off before one was defeated after a hard fight with Lazio 1:2. Christian Vieri had brought the Romans as early as the seventh minute lead before Dani was able to compensate in the eleventh minute. This was followed by an open slugfest, the Pavel Nedvěd with his goal to make it 2-1 in the 81st minute ruled in favor of Lazio.
Failure in Newcastle
After he had now successfully presented at the European level, Mallorca Marcelino could no longer hold. The contract for the change was the then Premier League club Newcastle United, who paid a transfer fee of 6.7 million euros. The stricken defense worries Englishman had high hopes for Marcelino, who was finally stabilize the defensive team. The expectations of the players was further enhanced by the then Newcastle manager Ruud Gullit, who praised him for his performance as one of Europe's best defensive player.
It was followed by four seasons in Newcastle, where he came in only 17 league games for use and became one of the biggest bad investments the club's history.
In his first season at Newcastle he injured himself already on his debut, the 0-2 defeat against Manchester United, and never recovered over the entire running time of the injury. Overall, he completed only 16 of 69 possible duty stakes for Newcastle, which led to a major frustration of the association.
As there was no change in the season 1999 /00 on the susceptibility to injury of the player, the club tried to get rid of the player prematurely. Gullit was already released and the new Newcastle manager Bobby Robson threw his lack of top earners before setting. Especially the fact that he was not play again because of a broken finger for 3 months, had the manager angrily. Already in November 2000, they gave the player thereupon clearance for a change of club, but this did not materialize. Although Newcastle would have forgone a majority of the transfer fee to underline Marcelino of the payroll, but never found a club that only partially wanted to take the risk of an almost year and a half convalescent players to pay a similar salary as Newcastle. He was at the Newcastle supporters who him money greed and lack of bite accused finally fallen out of favor. In total he completed in six matches this season in which he consistently not been impressed.
Despite the hostility of the fans and the willingness of the club to let him now draw free transfer, Marcelino remained until the winter transfer period of 2002/ 03 the club without aground in an official competition game. In January 2002, the Newcastle officers were announced to have the Treaty of Marcelino for breach of contract from the player before an employment tribunal will declare as invalid. The justification for the prosecution: Marcelino had not provided the contractually agreed performance. It never came to such a method, since the chances of canceling the contract null tended.
The association agreed in December 2002 was only then by mutual agreement with the player to terminate the contract, whereupon Marcelino changed due to lack of alternatives in the Segunda Division for the center stand Polideportivo Ejido.
End of career
As the only well-known player next to Gerhard Poschner he played with the Andalusians two inconspicuous seasons, before he ended his career after the season 2003/ 04 at the age of 33 years.
After end of his career he worked as a commentator on Spanish television channel TVE for the Premier League. He is currently at the British pay-TV broadcaster Sky as an expert in the Primera Division under contract. He also spent three years as a scout for Everton .. Since 2008 he is at Liverpool under contract in this function.
National
During his time at Mallorca strong he was appointed jointly with his congenial partner Iván Campo in the Spanish national football team.
His debut celebrated on 18 November 1998 in the game against Italy. His last game he absvolvierte during qualifying for the European Championship in 2000 at the 9:0 home win against San Marino. He was regarded as a promising candidate for a nomination in the final squad, the Spaniard for the European Championship, but was no longer called after his move to England in the national team.
Overall, he completed between 1998 to 1999 five matches without scoring for Spain.