Marcelo Flores, player of the UANL Tigres, will finally fulfill his World Cup dream by being called up as one of the 26 players of the Canadian team announced this Friday by coach Jesse March.

Flores ended up convincing the strategist of the “Maple Leaf” squad and after Javier Aguirre did not take him into account, he ended up accepting the invitation of the strategist of the Canadian team to try to make the most successful participation of this team in the history of the World Cup, taking advantage of the fact that he will be one of the co-hosts of the World Cup.

Marcelo Flores was born on October 1, 2003 in the city of Georgetown, Ontario, Canada. His father is Mexican and his mother is Canadian, which allowed him to obtain triple nationality (Canadian, Mexican and British.

Marcelo Flores' story with Mexico began in 2019, when he appeared on the radar of the Aztec team and since then the player's analysis and dilemma began to determine which team to choose to play in a World Cup.

The first contact was with Guillermo Cantú, director of national teams, who was a teammate of the player's father (Rubén Flores) in Atlante when Marcelo was already in the lower forces of Arsenal in England.

Cantú commented on that occasion that: "I spoke with his father and he told me that he had gone to Canada (where Marcelo was born) and there the boy started playing. Soccer took him to Arsenal. I told his father that maybe it would be convenient for us to see him here and he said yes."

Memo Cantú then got the machinery of the Mexican national team moving by telling Juan Carlos Ortega about a young Mexican player in England and that it was important to follow him up.

Ortega transferred Marcelo to the U15 under Mario “Califas” Arteaga to follow him up, but at all times he felt far from his roots and when Marcelo Flores had his first training session with the Canadian team, he felt more identified with his culture.

The environment made him feel more at home and that he did not manage to fit fully into the environment of the Mexican team and, in addition, Canada provided active monitoring and included him in its final call-up.

It should be noted that the current Tigres player is originally from Georgetown, Ontario, although he had training in youth teams with Mexico since the under-15 level.

The Canadian List

The Canadian team will be led by Alphonso Davies, who is recovering from an injury and has been the figure and icon of the team in recent years. Although he will probably miss the start of the World Cup, his participation is not in doubt for the following matches. Along with the Bayern Munich player, there will be Jonathan David, who plays for Juventus in Italy.

The Canadian Football Federation took advantage of the announcement to project the names of the 26 players on the CN Tower, one of Toronto's main tourist attractions, which at 553 meters high offers views of the World Cup stadium.

The World Cup list

Porteros: Maxime Crépeau (Orlando City) Owen Goodman (Barnsley / Crystal Palace) Dayne St. Clair (Inter Miami)

Defensas: Moïse Bombito (Nice) Derek Cornelius (Olympique de Marseille) Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich) Luc de Fougerolles (Fulham) Alistair Johnston (Celtic) Alfie Jones (Middlesbrough) Richie Laryea (Toronto FC) Niko Sigur (Hajduk Split) Joel Waterman (Chicago Fire)

Midfielders: Ali Ahmed (Norwich City), Tajon Buchanan (Villarreal), Mathieu Choinière (LAFC), Stephen Eustaquio (Porto), Marcelo Flores (Tigers), Ismail Kone (Sassuolo), Liam Millar (Hull City), Jonathan Osorio (Toronto FC), Nathan Saliba (Anderlecht)

Forwards: Jonathan David (Juventus) Promise David (Union Saint-Gilloise) Cyle Larin (Mallorca) Tani Oluwaseyi (Villarreal)