Marvin Andrews

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Personal information
Marvin Andrews
Full name	Marvin Andrews
Date of birth	December 22, 1975 (age 31)
Place of birth	San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago
Height	187cm
Nickname	Big Marv
Playing position	Defender
Club information
Current club	Raith Rovers
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1995-96 1997 1997-00 2000-04 2004-2006 2006-	San Juan Jabloteh Carib FC Raith Rovers Livingston Rangers Raith Rovers	63 (5) 117 (7) 53 (7)
National team²
1996-	Trinidad and Tobago	99 (10)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 15 June 2006. ² National team caps and goals correct as of 20 June 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Marvin Andrews (born December 22, 1975 in San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago) is a professional football defender who is currently playing for Raith Rovers football club in Scotland, with whom he also started his football career in Scotland.

He has also spent time with fellow Scottish clubs Livingston F.C. and joined Alex McLeish at Rangers in 2004. He was released by Rangers on 23 July, 2006. Andrews is also a key player for the Trinidad and Tobago national team.

[edit] Overview

Before moving to Scotland, Andrews played for San Juan Jabloteh and Carib FC of Trinidad. Made his international debut in 1996, and has made over 100 appearances for T&T in all competitions. Andrews is a very composed and consistent defender. Tall, strong and very good in the air, Raith Rovers sold Andrews for around £50,000 in a multi-player deal. Andrews signed for Livingston on the 28th, Sept, 2000. Andrews is probably one of the best defensive headerers of a football in the world, which made Alex McLeish (Rangers manager at the time) sign him. Marvin was also voted Raith Rovers' "Player of the day" in the 1999/2000 season and, also Livingston "Player of the Year" for the 2003/2004 season.

On the 14th of March 2004, Marvin Andrews picked up his first major medal when his club team Livingston won the Scottish League Cupby beating Hibernian 2-0 which was an easy game for Livi and created history as it would be the first-ever major knockout trophy for the club. Marvin Andrews signed a two-year deal with Rangers in May 2004 and at the end of his first season with Rangers he scooped the Rangers player of the year award, the club also won the Scottish Premiership title at the end of the 2004/2005 season (They won the title on the last day thanks to Motherwell's Scott McDonald scored two late goals to beat Celtic, who were top at the time) and he started the now famous Rangers catchpharse 'Keep Believing'. He was released by Rangers at the end of the 2005/2006 season and was a free agent for a short while, before being re- signed by his former club Raith Rovers on the 4th of October 2006. This came as the result of pressure form the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown on local business people to put up funds for him.

[edit] Religion

A devout Christian, Andrews also practices faith healing at the Zion Praise Centre International, a church based in Kirkcaldy which is described as being Pentecostal.[1]

In the season of 2004/2005 (his first season with Rangers) he injured the cruciate ligament in his knee while playing. The injury was supposed to keep him off the field for months but Marvin Andrews was only off for a CIS cup match and was back the next week as he believed God would keep him fit, a move which worried medical staff and supporters alike. Andrews' leg and form held up for the rest of the season, which saw his first SPL medal but the same injury eventully caught up with him, cruelly ruling him out of Trinidad And Tobago's World Cup 2006 Campaign. When Andrews scored for Rangers, or won the Man of the Match at Ibrox, the song Daydream Believer by The Monkees was played, as it features the lyric "I'm a believer".

In February 2006 he labelled homosexuals as "an abomination" and said, "There is a demon in their spirits, their spirits are ill. But God can help them through his church and anyone who doubts this can check the bible." [2]

[edit] External links

Marvin Andrews career stats at Soccerbase

	Trinidad and Tobago squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup
1 Hislop \| 2 Cox \| 3 A. John \| 4 Andrews \| 5 Sancho \| 6 Lawrence \| 7 Birchall \| 8 Gray \| 9 Whitley \| 10 Latapy \| 11 Edwards \| 12 Samuel \| 13 Glen \| 14 S. John \| 15 Jones \| 16 Wise \| 17 Charles \| 18 Theobald \| 19 Yorke \| 20 Scotland \| 21 Jack \| 22 Ince \| 23 Wolfe \| Coach: Beenhakker