Candelaria-Allemali

Candelaria-Allemali Football Club was a professional football club from the port city of Allemali in south-west Candelaria. The club was founded as a representative XI of Candelaria players to contest a series of matches against a counterpart team from Marquez and the Outlying Islands, the two sides ultimately joining an expanded CMSC as Marquez-Onwere and Candelaria-Allemali.

Allemali had been home to numerous franchises during the NFBL years, among them the Allemali Hawks and more successful Allemali Mariners, the latter of which won a single league title thanks to the brilliance of star striker Matthew Smith. The by-then defunct Mariners’ former home, the Clifton Sausage Company Arena, remained the most advanced in Candelaria and was chosen as home to the Candelarian XI and the club from which it spawned. CandelariaAM failed to keep pace with MarquezOW in the long term however, amid disputes between the board and fans over the club’s name, nickname (‘Mariners’ versus the ‘Shining Sons’, after the small church near the stadium) and the name of the ground, Hallowfield Park being ignored by supporters in favour of the Sausages Arena long after the Clifton company had dropped their sponsorship.

The days of Select XI stars Coleman Mustard, Tom McIndoe and Bill Peters far behind them; the Shining Sons claimed second place in the league in XXI and XXII under Andy Walker, but struggled in the early years of the International Era and were relegated in XXVII. Promoted via the play-offs, their fortunes improved significantly and Paulson Gates’ tough-tackling team, helped out of many a fix by the poaching instincts of strike duo Presbury Ellis and David Spooner, became a thorn in the side for teams both in C&M and beyond, the Shining Sons finishing third in the league in XXXI and making the quarter-finals of the eighth Champions’ Cup.

Their UICA runs of this period lifted the club’s finances from ‘perilous’ to ‘poor’, but much of this cash injection would go into maintaining the New Sausages Arena, despite being gifted the stadium itself by the CAMAFA as part of the forty-fourth World Cup in Candelaria And Marquez and Kura-Pelland. Unable to make the big-money signings of other CMSC1 clubs, CandelariaAM tried to get creative. After Han striker Kim Mihyeon became an important part of the first XI, Gates gave Bethany Nicholls a first start in the top-flight for a Candelariasian woman. The Shining Sons had already carved out a reputation as a club of second chances – troubled youths from home and abroad, including Jeruselemites Gime Thadope and Smakam Downe, and Arrozan ex-cons Nathan Knox and Tate Parrish, were given a chance, as were Candelariasian players released from their clubs over poor behaviour or small stature.

Ultimately however, the final seasons of Candelariasian professional football largely saw Candelaria-Allemali in the CMSC2 – comfortably the biggest club in the division, but unable to hold any promising young players long enough to return to CMSC1 competitiveness. Consistent rumours that the club were on the brink of going out of business, or being sold for a CMR£1, failed to materialise, and a major boost was received when the owner of the SargoStar shipping line, Carlos Bonilla, began a buy-out of club shares. Never really amounted to anything though, and then Candelariasian football went bleh, the end.

The New Sausages Arena would ultimately fall into disrepair, and in 2015 the giant video cube, that in better times had been a popular target for hoofing keepers and paper aeroplanes alike, finally collapsed to the ground during Storm Hane and crushed a passing family of shrews.

Notable CMSC1 International Era players
Goalkeepers
 * Alessandro D’Aniello
 * Alan Davis
 * Prince Mapleson

Defenders
 * Marcelo Augusto Conceição Silva
 * Archie Dubicki
 * Dean Jackson
 * Jack Johnson
 * Flag of Ex-Nation.png Nathan Knox
 * Adrian Mazzeo
 * Ben Palmer
 * Flag of Ex-Nation.png Thjis Tullier
 * Gregory van Houten tot Schaagen
 * Sean Wiacek

Midfielders
 * William Alvis
 * Nathan Bornemann
 * Smakam Downe
 * Fred Foster
 * Paulus Jurrie
 * Austin Lewis
 * Connor Mengucci
 * Bethany Nicholls
 * Flag of Ex-Nation.png Tate Parrish
 * Joey Pipes
 * Zlatko Redzic
 * George t’son o’Henry

Forwards
 * Andrew Bradley
 * Presbury Ellis
 * Kim Gihyeon
 * Kim Mihyeon
 * Rodigo Silva
 * David Spooner
 * Gime Thadope