Let's talk about wee Marc Anthony, a lad born in Scotland on the 28th of March 1978, which by now nudges him perilously close to the half century mark, age 47 if we're being pedantic. A midfielder by trade, Mr Anthony managed to prove his relevance primarily as a central attacking midfielder, all while being just 1.7 metres (approx 5ft 6in for the non-metric folk) tall and carrying a none too wiry weight of 78kg (about 12st 3lb for the weight-ignorant).
Looking back, Marc Anthony jostled his way into the Celtic line-up in the Premiership back in the not so nostalgic month of July 1995. As for his contribution on the field, it was like finding hen's teeth. In his inaugural season, 1996 - 1997, he managed to pull on the Celtic jersey only twice for first team league games. Moving on to season two, 1997 - 1998, our boy ended up watching more grass grow than football, with his first team appearances amounting to a grand total of zero.
By July 1999, perhaps tired of the view from the bench, our midfield maestro had buggered off to Berwick Rangers in the plush surrounds of Scotland's Lowland League. Now, for those who considered him borderline invisible at Celtic, he did manage to pull a few rabbits out of the hat at Berwick. Our lad made a whopping 34 first team appearances with a side note of nine back-of-the-net busters in league matches during the 1999 - 2000 season. The following 2000 - 2001 season and 2001 - 2002 season, he made 29 and 26 appearances respectively, bagging six and five goals to boot.
Skipping to August 2002, Marc exchanged the Lowland views of Berwick for the gritty gravel of the League Two, with Forfar Athletic. His goal scoring prowess may have taken a sidestep during the 2002 - 2003 season, with just a solitary goal, but he still managed to notch up 27 appearances.
Fast forwarding to November 2008, leagues and countries behind him, our nomadic-no-more midfielder found himself kicking about with Perth Glory in that sunburnt country's A-League. Granted, his glory days seem to have stayed in his suitcase. His game time amounted to a meagre six first team league encounters in the 2008 - 2009 season, leaving many to ponder if he'd misplaced his football boots. A curiously lacklustre chapter in Mr Anthony's footie career indeed.
Rewriting history books wasn't exactly Marc Anthony's biggest accomplishment, but he did manage to carve out a reasonably lengthy career within the beautiful game. Which, if we're being quite frank, is more than most of us keyboard warriors can say.
