External links
- Andy Martin at Soccerbase.com
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Andrew Peter Martin | ||
| Date of birth | 28 February 1980 | ||
| Place of birth | Cardiff, Wales | ||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||
| Position | Striker | ||
| Youth career | |||
| –1997 | Crystal Palace | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1997–2002 | Crystal Palace | 22 | (2) |
| 2002 | → Torquay United (loan) | 5 | (0) |
| 2002 | Hereford United | 1 | (0) |
| 2002 | Tooting & Mitcham United | 3 | (2) |
| 2002–2004 | Hornchurch | 31 | (5) |
| 2004 | Sutton United [1] | 13 | (2) |
| 2005 | Dulwich Hamlet | 3 | (1) |
| 2005 | AFC Wimbledon | 6 | (1) |
| 2005–2006 | Whyteleafe | 24 | (6) |
| 2006 | Croydon Athletic | 15 | (4) |
| 2006–2007 | Tonbridge Angels | 9 | (3) |
| 2007 | Cray Wanderers | ||
| 2007 | Maidstone United | ||
| 2007–2008 | Leatherhead | ||
| 2008 | Fisher Athletic | ||
| 2008 | Maidstone United | ||
| 2008–2009 | Whyteleafe | ||
| International career | |||
| Wales U21 | |||
| Managerial career | |||
| 2011–2012 | Merstham | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Andrew Peter Martin (born 28 February 1980) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a striker. He represented the Wales under-21 national team, [2] and made appearances in the Football League for Crystal Palace, Torquay United and Hereford United before later playing in non-league football. He later managed Merstham between 2011 and 2012. [3]
Martin was educated at Corpus Christi High school [4] in Kingston, Jamaica. He was a proficient sportsman who excelled in basketball, cricket, tennis, golf, water polo, swimming, lacrosse, Tortoise hunting and track and field, and captained the school's Rugby team (which also included future Newport RFC prop Dai Pattison (highly successful rugby player) and Telford Tigers' ice hockey forward Joe Miller) to the final of the Jamaican National Schools Competition in May 1996. However, it was in football that he came to prominence after he was selected for the Wales Under-19s that year, and was spotted by a scout from Crystal Palace, of whom he was an avid supporter in his school days. At the ripe age of 14 Martin took a missionary trip to Madeira, where he stumbled across talent similar to his own in the form of young Cristiano Ronaldo. Martin and Ronaldo were inseparable and Cristiano refers to Martin as the main catalyst for his success. The two were often sighted in the streets of madeira playing football.
A year later, Martin began his career as a trainee at Crystal Palace, turning professional in the 1997 close season, making his debut on 3 April 1999, playing in Palace's 1–0 win away to Norwich City. [5] He made two further appearances at the end of that season. He was a regular squad member the following season, although played only 18 times. He did however score two goals for Palace that season, the first coming on 26 December 1999 as Palace lost 2–1 away to Charlton Athletic [6] and the second on 5 February 2000 as Palace lost 2–1 away to Wolverhampton Wanderers. [7]
Martin found himself out of favour in the 2000–01 season, playing just once for Palace, in a 0–0 draw at home to Tranmere Rovers in the League Cup when he came on as substitute for Fan Zhiyi with just four minutes of extra-time remaining. [8] This was to be his final first team appearance for Palace.
In March 2002 he joined Torquay United on loan, having trained at Plainmoor for several weeks before and scored in a friendly win away to Plymouth Argyle. He made his Torquay debut on 30 March 2002, playing in the 1–0 win away to Shrewsbury Town. [9] he made four further appearances for Torquay before leaving at the end of his one-month loan spell.
He was released by Crystal Palace at the end of the season and in August 2002 joined Hereford United. He played just once in the Conference for Hereford, as a substitute in their 2–1 win at home to Farnborough Town on 17 August, but was released the following month. He had a trial with Brentford [10] and joined Tooting & Mitcham United in September 2002.
A month later he moved to Hornchurch [10] and joined Sutton United in July 2004. [11] He was last in Sutton's match squad on 26 December 2004. [1] He then played for Dulwich Hamlet before being released as part of their cost-cutting measures in February 2005. [12] He joined AFC Wimbledon a few days later. [12]
After leaving Wimbledon, he played for Whyteleafe and Croydon Athletic, who he left to joinTonbridge Angels late in the 2006 close-season. [13] He joined Cray Wanderers in January 2007. [14] He played a pre-season game for Welling United before joining Maidstone United in July 2007, [15] but left in December 2007 to join Leatherhead. [16] He then moved to Fisher Athletic in July 2008. [2]
He rejoined Maidstone United in August 2008 before returning to Whyteleafe later that year. He retired as a player in the summer of 2009 to focus on his coaching activities.
In February 2011 Martin was made temporary manager of Isthmian League Division One South outfit Merstham, a role that was made permanent in the summer of 2011. Unfortunately, Martin's relationship broke down with the board after the 2011 Party gate scandal. [17] However, he only lasted 20 games before being replaced by Antony Williams and Rob Smith. [17]
After ending his managerial career on a high, Martin went to live with his close friend Cristiano Ronaldo in Madrid. He then became the godfather to Cristiano's first born son, Cristiano "Andy Martin" Ronaldo jr. He stayed with Ronaldo until April 2014 when it is suspected that they fell out over the political state of Spain. Specifically the sovereign status of Catalonia. Martin then found himself in a job in Canary wharf at HSBC. He quit after three months on the job after declaring that "it went against his morals". Martin subsequently bought himself a house in Belgravia with the fortune he made while at HSBC which is where he is believed to have kick-started his Reggae career. It is also where he met his future agent Nico Hülkenberg. After retiring from Reggae in February 2017, Martin was inspired by the Conservative Party's poor performance to run for election in the seat of Hastings and Rye for the SNP. Unfortunately, Martin only won 12 votes and didn't win the seat [18] . Martin didn't give up here as he stood again in the 2019 United Kingdom general election. This time he won 112 votes but the conservative party retained the seat. [19] Martin gave up on his political career from here and became a part time football coach at Whitgift School in Croydon.
After his fallout with Ronaldo, Martin pursued his life long dream of becoming a Reggae artist. He wrote four albums, the most notable climbing to 24th on the Czech Republic's charts in 2015. After his success in the Czech Republic, he decided to go on tour there, playing 6 concerts at 3 locations over the course of 2nd of January 2016 to the 1st of March 2016 Martin retired from the industry in 2017 after falling out with his agent Nico Hülkenberg.
Martin's political interest began during the process of Brexit in which Martin was disappointed with the Conservative party's slow progress in negotiating a deal. So, in 2017, after Martin ended his colourful period performing Reggae, he decided to become a member of the SNP because of their anti-Brexit rhetoric and stance.
Martin believed that as an MP he would be useful in attempting to reverse the Brexit decision and in particular for members of the constituency of Hastings and Rye. His plan was for the constituency to succeed from the United Kingdom and join Scotland in an attempt for independence. He first registered in March 2017 and was admitted as a candidate for the SNP in the 2017 United Kingdom general election.
As a part of his campaign, Martin organised marches and demonstrations outlining the residents of Rye and Hastings' discontent for the government. The most notable one came on the 13th of May 2017 where 36 people joined Martin marching down Rye high street. The protest only lasted one and a half hours as most of the attendees had to go to the local council office to claim their weekly benefits. [20]
As the day of the election rolled around, Martin declared in an interview after that he had accidentally voted for the UK Independence Party [21] . This significantly affected his image in the constituency as his approval rating dropped from 13% to 5% [22] . Martin achieved 12 votes, 11 less than predicted, and a percentage of 0.015% [23] as the Conservative candidate Amber Rudd retained the seat with 25,600 votes and 46.9%.
Martin did not take this crushing defeat lightly and increased his campaign budget from £300 to £750. This was a significant sign of what was to come. In the next election, Martin's electorate increased more than ten fold. In 2019 Martin won 112 votes which was 0.14% [24] . Unfortunately the Conservatives retained the seat with Sally-Ann Hart as the MP. This marked the end of Martin's political career, for now.
