Green Island Zapata FC

Green Island Zapata Football Club, commonly known as Green Island or the GIZ, was a CMSC football team based in Zapata, the largest city on Green Island, a semi-autonomous region of Candelaria And Marquez.

An earlier professional side in the city, Zapata United, had been created for the NFBL and folded after the league’s collapse, and the GIZ had much the same origin with the new CMSC in mind, adopting their predecessors’ all-black home kits. After several years the club was finally promoted to the first division and in CMSC XVI achieved a highly unexpected league title victory under future Albrecht FC and C&M manager Lloyd Donnellly; striker Franklin Bell and midfield general John Lee earning eternal legend status.

The club soon tumbled back into the lower-league wilderness but returned via the CMSC2 play-offs in time for the dawn of the league’s ‘International Era’ – which was marked by the arrival of a player who, much later, would be celebrated (albeit possibly incorrectly) as Candelariasian football’s first non-human player, Roger Zetaback. A full international from the country that would become Valanora, Zetaback was the CMSC’s clear standout player during his first season and dragged his team into the title race, ultimately falling short but lifting the CMS Cup.

During Hane Davies’ years at the helm, a club that had previously attracted disapproval for its failure to combat the often racially-charged chanting of its ultras unwittingly became home to a team dominated by elves, a fact that steadily dawned on Zapata locals but remained little understood and officially unacknowledged in mainland C&M until the weeks that followed the Beatrice Event of 2010. Ahead of XXXII, Davies departed to take on his boyhood club Caires City and Green Island, now part-owned by Valanora’s ruling Raynor family, appointed their countryman Daft Massimo following his many years at Hondo FC.

Once Massimo had adapted to his new surroundings, and fused Vanorian talent with local grit and a smattering of other internationals, Green Island were all but unstoppable. Over the coming years, Espy va Drake would establish himself as, in the eyes of most fans and pundits, the greatest player in the history of the CMSC and one of the multiverse’s finest of his era, while Lúthien Anwamanë, though barely more than a child by Vanorian standards, would become the International Era’s all-time goalscorer – and help the GIZ on the way to becoming the era’s highest scoring club. At the back, Ladordren Dorack came in from Raynor City to quickly become an inspirational presence. Massimo’s team won three league titles in a row, the last of them with a record points total.

The team’s achievements were all the more remarkable coming as they did amid a backdrop of social unrest and eventual armed conflict on their home island. While the true scale of the island’s despot Sam Mc O’Neil’s atrocities would become clear only later, Zapatans were considerably more aware than their mainland cousins that there was much in the multiverse beyond their understanding, and much even on their doorstep to be frightened of, but the victories of their football team provided many a fillip in the darkest times. It is likely that the political situation on the island contributed to the decision by Massimo and most of his Vanorian staff and players to depart following a comparatively disappointing third-place finish in the season following the ‘threepeat’.

Green Island might have floundered thereafter, but a generation of young locals had by now grown up at the club’s academy – and GIZ fans quickly learned to cheer not elves, but their human protégés. Former centre-half Ben Young succeeded Massimo and unexpectedly guided the club to yet another league title in his first season at the helm, his daughter and national icon Jhanna Young the star throughout but amplified by fellow C&M international wonderkids Jameson Aldren, Jacob Pond and Ethan Robertson. ‘Green Islanders Do Things Better’ was now the mantra, as the young ‘Oxides’ as they obscurely became known – and their one remaining elven mentor, Thankanion Elnelwa – returned to the CMSC’s summit. It would not last however, the CMSC’s final season being a huge disappointment for the champions who had, it appeared, been worked out by their opponents. The team crumbled to an eleventh place finish, though given events occurring across the Candelarias at the time there would be little chance to take stock before the club joined so many others in eternal obscurity.

Despite a domestic record that can be bettered only by the Albrecht giants, Green Island’s best Champions’ Cup results were quarter-final runs, alongside a semi-final appearance at the eighth Globe Cup. No team with ‘green’ in their name ever played more games in UICA competition, though. So there’s that.

In the years that followed the club’s disestablishment, the stand at Marlow Park that most people agreed only remained structurally sound thanks to elven magiks disintegrated, and the stadium became just another ruined arena on the island among many – though in this case a testament not to one man’s madness but a reminder of the glories of a great sporting past. The Massinger Valley Park, once used as the GIZ’s training facility, is today a popular site for doggers, although the same could be said during the club’s pomp tbh.

Notable CMSC1 International Era players
Goalkeepers
 * Lyle Gwyther
 * Júnior
 * Roman Perkins
 * Ciaran Stockley

Defenders
 * Flag of Ex-Nation.png Étienne de Roviere
 * Jerome de Wit
 * Ladordren Dorack
 * Thankanion Elenelwa
 * Kasper Grinius
 * Fred Michaels
 * Paul Paterson
 * Flag of Ex-Nation.png Campbell Raviranjan
 * Valaina Tinúniel
 * Ben Young
 * Flag of Ex-Nation.png Russ Zapata

Midfielders
 * Jameson Aldren
 * Lloyd Carpenter
 * Aintôrthea Durosa
 * Ogus Kures
 * Ben Head
 * Steve Newman
 * Tom Osborne
 * Jacob Pond
 * Ethan Robertson
 * Jason Saunderson
 * Will Sussex
 * Espy va Drake
 * Jhanna Young
 * Roger Zetaback

Forwards
 * Lúthien Anwamanë
 * Ben Clayton
 * Rául Vélez
 * Stuart Vidakovic