Melin & Nader

Melin & Nader Football Club was a professional football club based in the city of Melin, Marquez which contested several seasons of the CMSC1 including three during the ‘International Era’.

Melin FC
As with most cities and large towns on the island of Marquez, Melin was an hotbed of amateur football during the early 1900s, home to numerous clubs that reflected both the English and Spanish elements of the city’s heritage. On a national level, the vast number of clubs saw Melinian football initially suffer when placed up against Candelarian sides in a competitive environment, prompting in 1935 the creation of the non-sectarian Melin Football Club for the inaugural National Foot-Ball League season.

Though their players and supporters were drawn from various sides, Melin FC soon attracted the los italianos nickname from their notable number of Italian-speaking stars, with Melin then and now home to the largest linguistic community of Italians in Candelaria And Marquez outside Albrecht. Prolific centre forward Andy Castagna, eternally resentful inside forward Matteo Pizza and goalscoring half-back Daniel Gardella were among the major names of early professional football in the Candelarias, providing direct inspiration for international stars such as Matteo Corradini and Conor Mengucci and, in their heyday, leading the club to the NFBL’s first back-to-back league titles in 1942 and ’43.

Melin had been one of the first division’s most consistent forces up until then, with manager Don Facchinetti’s 2-3-2-3 (or Metodo) formation allowing the club to pull above their financial weight right up until their breakthrough of the ‘40s. In the years that followed however, younger talent failed to come through the youth system and the balance of power in the archipelago soon began to swing back in Candelaria’s favour, and the big Albrecht clubs in particular. Melin found themselves relegated and promoted several times during the ‘50s, before an ill-fated takeover by an international lingerie firm in 1966 led them to financial ruin. The club dropped out of the league and folded in 1970, three years before the NFBL itself collapsed.

With the stadium and training ground sold off, Melin FC effectively ceased to exist, with many supporters turning their backs on what they came to see as the corrupted sport of football altogether. With the beginning of the CMSC and the return of professionalism however, a small group of former supporters and businesses combined to form the Melin Professionals, laying claim to much of the former Melin FC’s history.

Melin & Nader
In the eyes of the majority of fans however, the personalities and interests at work at the Professionals made the new club a less than enticing prospect, while tedious football in the CMSC’s regional divisions and a lack of anything approaching glory left many equally cold. Sensing the mood, local spam tycoon Raúl Lodi – Melin-born and a former Melin FC supporter, though then based in the smaller nearby town of Nader – bought amateur side Cervia Saviloi, a club based around an Italian restaurant, and set about creating Melin & Nader FC.

The club’s original name was Melin FC & Nader FC – reflecting Lodi’s desire to inherit the past not only of the Melin club but also of Nader FC, a smalltown side that had previously stunned early Candelariasian football by winning the inaugural NFBL season before steadily falling into anonymity. The risible nature of the name, coupled with the almost simultaneous establishment of a Nader FC that survived in the regional divisions until Candelariasian football’s final collapse, saw the middle ‘FC’ soon dropped, but the owner’s wish to cling to past glories was strong enough to see the club buy Melin FC’s NFBL trophies at auction, and receive the backing of a venerable Daniel Gardella, to become the elder club’s ‘official’ successors – much to the distaste, then and now, of the Melin Professionals and their supporters.

M&N, despite lacking any real support from Nader itself and starting much lower down the pyramid that the Professionals, rapidly became the city’s biggest and most successful club. Though their fanbase remained relatively diverse, they soon became seen as the city’s main Hispanic club as opposed to the more Anglo Professionals, a status they retained to the last as much for reasons of geographic catchment area as factionalism.

First entering the top-flight anew under coach Domingo Cruz for the CMSC XVIII season, less than ten seasons after they were founded, M&N rapidly became a solid mid-table force; their closest taste to glory coming with a fifth-place finish in XXII. The following seasons provided anything but, with top players syphoned off by Castillo FC and other rising Marquezian powers and the club plummeting in the second half of the season to relegation.

The 'International Era'
Los italianos were promoted the following season, with new manager Christian Ufuk and a group of largely locally-born players that included several signed in the summer from the Professionals having high hopes of younger talent including under-21 internationals Dean Wilson and Chris Ytterland, but ultimately seeing the side relegated once more with just six wins to their name. A series of mediocre performances in the CMSC2 saw hopes of becoming re-established as a major force begin to slip away, with the SBCC soon becoming the club’s major hope for some manner of success – though even there, a first knockout round exit at SBCC1 provided their only international experience prior to SBCC8.

Melin & Nader would get lucky in the XXX season however, finishing sixth on the final day and only a point inside the play-off places, but riding a wave of late success through to a play-off final victory over Khatib FC. Now managed by former Arrigo Portuguese centre-half Nathaniel Ferrero, M&N looked better equipped than before to stay up, but the lack of any real financial muscle in the post-Lodi era again left them reliant on a local side simply not up to the task and they were again relegated with room to spare.

Back in the CMSC2 and with Ferrero given more time at the helm, their challenges for promotion began to take on a more commanding appearance, with the club only narrowly missing out on the top two in XXXIII before producing a superb Clausura the following term to take the CMSC2 title ahead of NAPPC on goal difference. Their side for the next top-flight season looked a notable improvement on previous efforts, despite the unproven strikeforce and the controversial decision to drop club captain Luis Alberto Vázquez from the starting line-up in favour of Marcelo Augusto Conceição Silva, signed from Candelaria-Allemali.

The club duly started relatively brightly, with wins hard to come by but the club energised by the return of locally-reared midfielder Cristian Enría and Starblaydi youngster Rodrigo Silva up front but, once the CMSC1 had again worked out Ferraro and his team, they began to struggle badly. Winning just once during the Clausura, Melin & Nader’s long-awaited top-flight stay proved unfortunately short, and they were relegated as the third-from-bottom side, six points behind MN Smith.

The following four seasons concluded with the club outside the CMSC2 promotion or play-off positions, promising academy products including Mark Allbright and Guildford Herbert inevitably soon sold on to CMSC1 strugglers. Their XXXIX final position under manager Howard Penrose, thirteenth and their lowest of the International Era, provided the club with an ignominious exit from professional football. Their stadium’s now a condom factory, a small block of flats and a Nord-Brutlandese restaurant. Fact.

Away from their on-field activities, Melin & Nader were probably best known for their cavalier attitude towards the club’s colours and kit, with a variety of styles used over their relatively short history – from stripes and chessboard patters, and colour schemes of black and white, bright green and chocolate brown, to the ultimate, vaguely flame-effect, number.

Notable CMSC1 International Era players
Goalkeepers
 * Manuel Ruiz
 * Seth Uskokovic

Defenders
 * Jonathan Barajas
 * Marcelo Augusto Conceição Silva
 * Damien Jeremy
 * Paul Marin
 * Rafael Jose Reginaldo
 * Sirmon Varatris

Midfielders
 * Mark Allbright
 * Nicolás Arenales
 * Tonio Brossefini
 * Cristian Enría
 * Guildford Herbert
 * Dean Wilson

Forwards
 * Gregorio Morales
 * Javier Pérez
 * Rodrigo Silva
 * Ricardo Luiz Solaris