On-loan Fiorentina left-back Alonso created a remarkable family record against Manchester United last week.
The Spaniard became the third generation of his family to appear at Old Trafford in Wednesday night’s memorable Capital One Cup semi-final second leg after his dad appeared for Barcelona there in the 1984 and his grandad before him for Real Madrid in 1957.
But if Alonso had listened to the advice of his friends back in his homeland, he might not have joined Sunderland.
They were baffled when he told them he was swapping Europa League outfit Fiorentina for the Premier League strugglers.
Marcos Alonso: “Wednesday was definitely one of the highlights of my career.
“When I spoke to my friends in Spain three weeks ago and I told them I was moving to Sunderland, they said ‘why are you moving to Sunderland?
"You are at Fiorentina, playing in Europe and you’re going to Sunderland who are at the bottom of the Premier League.’
"We’re still in a difficult situation in the league, and we need to play how we have been doing, keep going and keep the team in the league.
“But now there’s the present of playing at Wembley against a great team like Manchester City.
“In football, you can never celebrate because one week you can be the best team in the world and the next week, everything can change.
“We just need to keep working hard and I’m sure the team is capable of doing great things here.”