Adrian Mariappa: Fijian blood in the Premier League

Everyone knows that there are some Oceanian representants in the English Premier League like Chris Wood and Winston Reid from New Zealand. There are also some young players like Scott Wara (Fiji) and Terry Stephenson (Papua New Guinea) playing for second division youth teams.

However there is one football player with Fijian roots that has already played 158 matches in English top-tier: Adrian Mariappa from Watford FC. Mariappa was born in England and his father is from Fiji. The 33 years old central defender was named in an extended training squad for 2011 Pacific Games but he did not accept the call-up.

Mariappa’s mother is from Jamaica and he has chosen to represent the Caribbean country and he made his debut for Reggae Boyz in a friendly match against Guyana in 2012. Mariappa became an important player for Jamaica by being the team captain like he did in 2016 Copa América held in the United States.

He explained his final decision at a ‘meet and greet’ gathering of the Jamaica Football Federation’s (JFF) office in New Kingston – “From the three countries, Fiji is not a big nation in football; Jamaica has a great heritage in football and has been to the World Cup before, and some great names have played for Jamaica, so it is definitely a more high-profile country”.

As it was told before he is an important player for Jamaica and he helped his National Team to reach the 2015 Gold Cup final against Mexico but they lost by 3-1. It was a pity that Mariappa did not choose to represent Fiji as he could increase the defensive quality of the Bula Boys with his huge experience in the English football.