The son of cab driver and community director Mario González,[1] and school principal Gladys Godoy,[1] Marcelo has been linked to football since his childhood. He has been strongly influenced by his grandfather Juan Guillermo Godoy,[1]amateur footballer who was one of the first members of the Coquimbo regional team.[1] He began his studies at School Number 5 and later attended A8 Lyceum.[1]
After high school, his initial goal was to study theater, but his and his family's economical complications prevented him from pursuing this option. Regarding it, he said: "When I finished my secondary education, in those years I performed the PAA —Prueba de Aptitud Académica— and I qualified to study theater in Santiago, but due to financial problems I couldn't study".[1] Even so, he worked to pay for an English course to support his own projects[1] in communications. He presented proposals to different media stations until being accepted by Canal 8 UCV TV in 1981,[1] thereby starting his career at 18.
Rise in media: 1981–2003
Once at UCV TV, he worked at the local station for La Serena (near his native Coquimbo). There, he presented a proposal to create a program on Fiestas Patrias (Homeland Holidays), which was well received by the board.
At the same time, González began a career in radio, where he worked at a regional level for almost five years, participating in programs such as Radio Agricultura and Radio Amistad.[1] In 1991, González decided to take a new opportunity in Santiago, the capital of Chile, where his voice was already known.[1] He broadcast the program "Los Gigantes del Deporte" (Sports Giants)[1] alongside personalities like Wladimiro Mimica, Eduardo Bonvallet, Carlos Caszely and Héctor Vega Onesime. This platform allowed him to be discovered by football commentator, Milton Millas, with whom he became close friends during their work at Radio Nacional, about which González states:
After working with Wladimiro, it appeared Milton Millas, with whom I had already shared some interviews in Coquimbo Region and invited me to work with him in then program Más Deporte ("More Sports"), which had one of the greatest tunes in the country (...) and where I worked with Elías Figueroa, Sergio Livingstone and Alberto Fouillioux. In that time, Milton began to lead Megavisión sports area and called me to being part of it as a sports reporter to continue, at the same time, consolidating myself in radio to be the voice of main newscasts.[1]
