Mark Williams

Born 28 September 1970 (Age 34 at debut)

Position: Defender

(Diamonds player #207)

Total appearances 7

(7 League)

Debut:

5 March 2005 (Away Scunthorpe United)

Final game:

23 April 2005 (Away Darlington)

Mark started off as a trainee with Crewe Alexandra before joining Newtown FC in August 1989. In March 1992, he joined Shrewsbury Town enjoying over three years with the club before an offer of £47,000 took him to Chesterfield in August 1995. It was while he was at Chesterfield that he won his first cap for Northern Ireland, making his debut against Germany on 27 March 1999. He went on to make 36 appearances for his country, including taking the captaincy.

He was signed by Watford on July 1999, before Wimbledon snapped him up the following season. During his spell at Wimbledon, he went out on loan to Stoke City before deciding to quit English football in May 2003. His spell with Colombus Crew in the US Major League however was cut short after being summoned back for International duty and he decided to rejoin Wimbledon in January 2004 (becoming MK Dons in June that year). He was loaned to Rushden & Diamonds on 2 March 2005 due to a long term injury to Graham Allen. The one month loan spell was later extended to the end of the season.

At the end of the season, he was released by MK Dons and decided to retire from football and currently resides in Marbella, Spain. He owns a company that provides golfing holidays on the Costa del Sol (www.vipgolfingbreaks.com).