And so Marcos Flores will be booed unmercifully when he comes back to Hindmarsh Stadium. That's the nature of football, and that's what happens when you join your former club's Lex Luthor... 

"Because of a pissant town, this club will never win anything."

Then-Adelaide United coach Aurelio Vidmar, February 14 2009

LIFE IN Adelaide just hasn't been the same since Marcos Flores left town.  

South Australia had never experienced anything like him, at least not since the days of Celtic legend 'Dixie' Deans. At a time when loyalty in football has been eaten whole by petrodollars, Flores was a charming, confident, straight-up dreamboat of a player who didn't care about money. Not one bit.

He wasn't afraid to say 'I love you,' either. In fact, he said it all the time - to fans, to the city. People call Adelaide a big country town, rather mockingly - even though over one million folks call it home. But Marcos liked it. And most of all, he was brilliant.

A real playmaker. The kind of guy you can build a team around. Whenever it looked like there were no options in attack, Flores would invent one out of thin (...)