AL AROUND THE WORLD

U’s Gorrin is on glory trail after global journey

OXFORD have beaten Peterborough, Millwall, West Ham and Sunderland on their journey to their first League Cup quarter-final for 32 years.

But that is nothing compared to the odyssey midfielder Alex Gorrin has undertaken to face Manchester City tonight.

Gorrin’s career reads like a script for Michael Palin’s latest travel series and has taken in six countries on two continents.

After starting with Leicester’s Ayoze Perez at Tenerife’s Under-14s in his native Canary Islands, he had spells at Sunderland, Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand, Boavista, Romanian side Sepsi and Motherwell before arriving at Oxford.

Gorrin, 26, spent five years at Sunderland from the age of 16 and played in the same youth sides as England keeper Jordan Pickford and Sheffield United’s John Egan.

“From sunny Tenerife to cold Sunderland!” he said with a smile. “At the time Sunderland were in the Premier League and it was a great opportunity.

“I played with Jordan there. He always played above his age, so he was with us most of the time. You could see from early doors he was a really good player.”

Gorrin left without making an appearance for Sunderland and one of their coaches recommended him to A-league side Wellington, where he got his first taste of senior football.

He then had a brief stint at Portuguese side Boavista before a six-month spell with Sepsi in 2018.

“I thought it would be tough with the culture,” he said. “But I really enjoyed it. They’re ethnic Hungarians and I had goulash, which wasn’t bad. They signed a lot of foreign players to help them stay in Romania’s top league and we managed to do to that.”

Gorrin spent last season at Motherwell and impressed enough to earn a free transfer to Oxford in the summer.

“Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve gone with an open mind,” he said. “When Karl Robinson called me, I knew Oxford could be a really good place to keep improving.

“The way the team play suits me and I’m really enjoying it here.”

Tonight’s tie pits Tenerife against Gran Canaria, where David Silva was born, and Gorrin said: “When Las Palmas and Tenerife play, there’s a bit of rivalry, but we’re all from the Canaries.

“It would be brilliant to play against David. He’s such a great player because he has so much quality.

“It’s not just David, Man

City have a lot of quality, world-class players.

“It’s a one-off game. No one expects us to win – but it’s the cup and anything can happen.”