Winston Parks

Winston Parks

Personal information
Full name	Winston Parks Tifet
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Forward
Team information
Current team	FC Timişoara
Number	9
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 23 June 2008

Winston Parks Tifet (born October 12, 1981) is a Costa Rican football (soccer) striker who currently plays for FC Timişoara in Romania. He played in Europe before at Slovan Liberec, Lokomotiv Moscow and on loan at FC Saturn Ramenskoe.

Winston made his debut in the Costa Rican Primera Divisiónin 1999 with only in 17 year-old, playing with his hometown team ASODELI and scored his first goal back on November 28th of the same year, he played this season mostly as a substitute, because he was competing at that moment against some players that succeeded during the next few years, like Kurt Bernard, Andy Herron, Rayner Robinson and Ricardo Douglas for a place in the starting line-up. The following season and after the sale of most of the players mentioned before, it was usual to see him in the starting line-up making a dangerous offensive triplet with Victor Núñez and Andy Herron.

Parks gained recognition as an exceptional youth player, appearing in FIFA World Youth Championships U-17 in 1999 held in Nigeria and U-20 in 2001 held in Argentina, and leading Costa Rica during the 2001 U-20 tournament, with four goals. His high internationally performances led the Italian club Udinese to purchase the player for $2.1 million from ASODELI. However, Parks was unable to earn a place in the club's first team, he was loaned to Ascoli and eventually moved on to Lokomotiv Moscow, he was again loaned to FC Saturn Ramenskoe and then he was sold to Slovan Liberec.

Despite his minimal success at the club level, Parks is still an excellent prospect for his country. After making his full national team debut in November 2001, he made the roster for the 2002 World Cup, where he appeared in two games as a substitute. Against Turkey he scored the equalizing goal, but failed to score on a second opportunity. he also had a great game against Brazil. His lack of playing time and injuries have, however, resulted in Parks seeing little time during 2006 World Cup qualifying.

After spending 6 years in Europe he decided to moved back to Costa Rica looking for more minutes on the field in other the get in shape and find again his game and ability. He signed with LD Alajuelense, but he has had a lot of injuries and only scored 2 goals in the Apertura's tournament. He has got more minutes during the Clausura's tournament and less injuries, he has scored more goals and delivered better performances but there are still high hopes for this player.