ARGENTINA: TOP SOCCER TEAM BOCA JUNIORS INVITE PLAYER FROM THE FALKLANDS TO TRY OUT FOR THE CLUB

Record ID: 257488

  • Title: ARGENTINA: TOP SOCCER TEAM BOCA JUNIORS INVITE PLAYER FROM THE FALKLANDS TO TRY OUT FOR THE CLUB
  • Date: 18th August 1999
  • Summary: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (RECENT) (REUTERS) 1. MARTYN CLARKE ARRIVING AT A BOCA FIELD TO TRAIN 2. VARIOUS OF MARTYN PLAYING SOCCER 3. PEOPLE AND FELLOW PLAYERS WATCHING MARTYN 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARTYN ASKED ABOUT HIS TRAINING WITH BOCA SAYING "I feel a bit tired. I am not used to training in the Falklands, we turned out for th
  • Embargoed: 2nd September 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
  • Country: Argentina
  • Reuters ID: LVAC7FITUEWNCVSEE9YM2RUOM1DV
  • Story Text: Top Argentine soccer team Boca Juniors have invited a
    player from the Falklands (Malvinas) to try out for the club,
    another example of improving relations with the British-owned
    protectorate


    In another example of the renewed relationship between
    Argentina and the Falkland Islands Martyn Clarke, a 19- year
    old striker, has been invited to try out for the top Argentine
    soccer club, Boca Juniors.

    Clarke has been staying at one of the Club's home's called
    "Casa Amarilla" ("Yellow house").

    "All the people here are very friendly.I communicate with
    my mates through a dictionary, an English-Spanish dictionary,
    and one of my roommates speaks a few words of English," said Clarke.

    The islander explained he was not used to the intense
    training of the championship winning soccer team, in the
    Falklands he just turned up for the match.

    "I find it difficult to keep up with the training," he said.

    When asked what he would do if chosen to be part of the
    Argentine national team, he laughed at first but then firmly
    said he would not play.

    "If asked to play for the British team, I would, but this
    is a long way, it's a dreamland," he added.

    Clarke's tryout has added to a gradual improvement in
    contacts between the British-held South Atlantic islands and
    Argentina, which occupied the islands for 10 weeks in 1982
    acting on a long-standing sovereignty claim over them.

    Argentine passport holders were recently allowed to begin
    visiting the islands off the Argentine coast and known in
    Latin America as "Las Islas Malvinas".

    A territorial dispute between the United Kingdom and
    Argentina over the British territory off the Argentine coast
    led to the Falklands War in the 1980s.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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