…The former Arsenal shot-stopper relishes the heat of battle and will take any opportunity he can to taunt his opponents
Emi Martinez is one of the most decorated goalkeepers in modern football. The Argentina No.1 played a key role in his country’s 2022 World Cup triumph, and the two Copa America successes on either side of it, recording an impressive 12 clean sheets across those three tournaments.
He also managed to lift the FA Cup before leaving Arsenal for Aston Villa in 2020, and he’s the only man to have ever won the esteemed Yashin Trophy on two occasions. “Do I feel like the best goalkeeper in the world? Well, a bit, yes, let me enjoy it,” Martinez told DSports after scooping the award for the second successive year at the 2024 Ballon d’Or ceremony.
He has certainly enjoyed holding that title, but does he really deserve it? The answer is no, especially not ahead of truly world-class operators like Thibaut Courtois, Alisson Becker, Jan Oblak and Gianluigi Donnarumma. Martinez is a good goalkeeper who has done remarkably well to achieve so much after waiting eight years for his chance to shine at Arsenal, but he’s not a great one.
Raphinha did not need to ‘hype up’ Argentina versus Brazil clash, says Lionel Scaloni after his side’s 4-1 victory
When Martinez eventually hangs up his gloves, he will be remembered more for his antagonising abilities than those with his hands or feet. He’s football’s ultimate wind-up merchant, a keeper who seems to derive more satisfaction from getting a rise out of opponents than he does from winning, which – for better or worse – continues to make him stand out among his peers.
Shameless showboating
Martinez stole many of the headlines again this week after starring in Argentina’s thumping 4-1 World Cup qualifying win over Brazil. All Superclassic meetings between South America’s top two nations are feisty affairs, but this one was given extra spice by pre-match comments from Barcelona star Raphinha, who said in a sit-down with Brazil legend Romario: “We will beat them, no doubt. On and off the pitch, if we have to. F*ck them.”
According to Leandro Paredes, Raphinha’s ill-advised outburst was shared in the Argentina squad WhatsApp group as motivational fuel, and the fire behind the players’ eyes was evident right from the first whistle. La Albiceleste completely dominated the first half and went in at the break 3-1 up, with Giuliano Simeone eventually rounding off the emphatic victory 20 minutes from time.
Argentina cruised over the line professionally, but only after head coach Lionel Scaloni scolded Martinez for a shameless display of showboating. With Brazil neglecting to press high, the Villa star knocked a backpass into the air before performing keep-ups with his knees, which prompted Scaloni to wag his finger and lay down the law.
“The ball just happened to bounce my way, and I made a few spins with my knee,” Martinez later told reporters. “That was all there was to it. The fans loved it, but I know that Lionel is not a fan of these kinds of things.” As ever, the 32-year-old showed no remorse, and it wasn’t the only time he played to the Estadio Mas Monumental crowd that night.
Pantomime villain
Martinez also made sure to rub salt in Raphinha’s wounds. The Argentina keeper ran into the beaten Brazil winger deliberately after the final whistle, which instantly got his shackles up.
Raphinha was then seen shoving Paredes and had to be restrained by Selecao team-mate Endrick as the situation threatened to escalate. All of that happened while Martinez stood back pretending he was completely oblivious.
He would go on to show his true colours when the Argentina players celebrated with the Buenos Aires supporters, dancing along as they chanted: “A minute of silence… Shh!… For Raphinha who is dead!” Of course, it was Martinez who infamously came up with that song to mock Kylian Mbappe after Argentina’s World Cup final win over France in Qatar.
These petty acts of ‘sh*thousery’ should be beneath a player of Martinez’s stature and experience. But he simply cannot help himself.
“Raphinha should be a bit more educated,” Martinez added when speaking to the media. “I’ve always been told; speak after the games, not before.” The hypocrisy of that statement is staggering, though it is hard to tell when Martinez is being serious. He seems to be fully aware of his pantomime villain status, and never misses an opportunity to lean into it.
Broken vow
Martinez doesn’t care who he upsets or offends; his main goal is to get a reaction. After all, this is the same man who was widely criticised for celebrating his Golden Glove win at the World Cup by sticking the award against his crotch, but still decided to repeat the gesture with the Copa America trophy.
FIFA punished Martinez for his antics after last year’s Copa final with a two-game ban, which led him to issue a half-hearted apology on social media. “I accept the sanction and I apologise if I offended anyone, the moment of celebration is to make many kids smile and not disrespect anyone,” he wrote on Instagram. “It was never my intention to disrespect anyone, nor did I understand that a gesture well received by people was offensive, but I will try not to offend anyone anymore and just focus on winning titles with Argentina and Aston Villa.”
It is no surprise that Martinez has already broken that vow. His childish behaviour is not exclusive to when he’s on national team duty either, as most Premier League fans and players outside of Villa Park would attest to.
Indeed, during Villa’s 2-1 home win over Manchester City in December, Martinez went to great lengths to make Jack Grealish’s blood boil after his ex-team-mate complained to the referee about a lack of first-half stoppage time. Martinez kept sniping at Grealish all the way to the dressing room, and was heard saying: “You think you’re a big boy now, huh.”
On that occasion, Grealish did well not to take the bait, but not everyone is immune to Martinez’s mind games.
‘I create chaos’
The best example of Martinez getting inside the head of a Premier League rival came in September 2021, when Villa beat Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford. Kortney Hause netted the winner for the visitors in the 88th minute, but the spoils would have been shared had Bruno Fernandes not blazed a stoppage-time penalty over the bar.
Fernandes is usually the model of calm from 12 yards, but Martinez went to great lengths to disrupt his process. “I saw [Cristiano] Ronaldo disappointed for not taking it, and I thought there is tension here,” the Villa No.1 admitted when speaking to Ian Wright and Oriana Sabatini on Behind The Game. “I said ‘Come on, you take it now. He (Ronaldo) doesn’t want to shoot’. I said to [Edinson] Cavani ‘Why is Ronaldo not shooting?'”
Martinez then proceeded to sway from side to side and jump up and down before Fernandes let fly – a tactic he picked up from Argentine colleague Lionel Messi. “It’s not even trash-talk. I create chaos,” he added. “It was the 92nd minute of the game, I have to distract him in some way because they’ve got everything to win. Bruno, he didn’t miss a pen for 25 pens or something. I asked Messi and he said, ‘When you move all around the place like that, they don’t like it.'”
Fernandes missing the target wasn’t enough for Martinez, though, as he celebrated by dancing and thrusting his groin in the direction of the United fans behind the goal. “I was dancing not because I want to dance. I never practised that. I don’t know how to do it now, that just came out in the moment,” he claimed. But pre-meditated or not, there was just no need. Martinez doesn’t just generate chaos to gain an advantage, he gets a kick out of it.
Error-prone penalty specialist
All that being said, Martinez wouldn’t have survived so long in the starting XI for one of English football’s biggest clubs and the reigning world champions if annoying people were the only thing he’s good at. As a shot-stopper, Martinez is extremely capable, and he thrives in high-pressure situations.
In the 2022 World Cup final, he somehow managed to prevent Randal Kolo Muani winning the trophy for France with a brilliant last-gasp save, and kept out Kingsley Coman’s penalty in the subsequent shootout. Martinez also saved two penalties in Argentina’s Copa America 2024 quarter-final win over Ecuador, sparing the blushes of Messi after the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner had opened the shootout with a shock miss.
He’s been a shootout hero for Villa, too, producing the vital stop to deny Benjamin Andre that took Unai Emery’s team past Lille and into the 2023-24 UEFA Conference League semi-finals – after controversially escaping a red card for shushing the French crowd at Stade Pierre Mauroy. And who could forget Martinez’s super-human reactions when clawing away a Nicolas Dominguez header in Aston Villa’s 2-1 loss to Nottingham Forest at the City Ground, which earned him the Premier League’s Save of the Month award for December.
The problem is, Martinez’s moments of madness are almost as frequent as the brilliant ones. He is prone to errors because of his erratic decision-making and doesn’t convince with his positioning or distribution. Martinez also holds the unwanted record for the ‘keeper with the most own-goals in Premier League history (3), which he broke when somehow fumbling a deflected Harvey Elliott cross into his net during a 3-3 draw against Liverpool at Villa Park last season.
Box-office draw
Perhaps that all goes some way to explaining why Mikel Arteta sanctioned Martinez’s £16 million ($21m) sale to Villa in September 2020, which the Arsenal boss has since insisted was “in the best possible interests of the club”. Martinez finally announced himself on the big stage after stepping in for the injured Bernd Leno the previous season, but had also played second fiddle to the likes of Petr Cech, Wojciech Szczesny, David Ospina, Lukasz Fabianski and Vito Mannone, and left Emirates Stadium with just 38 first-team appearances to his name.
“You could always see his ability, but he had too much energy at Arsenal,” former Gunners shot-stopper Cech recently told Amazon Prime. “It wasn’t until he found a way to channel it into one direction that he really developed and went to the next level.” Martinez has definitely reached greater heights since his Arsenal exit, but it’s debatable that he’s learned how to channel his “energy”.
Martinez will always let his emotions get the better of him on the football pitch. He will continue to frustrate as often as he amazes, but that’s what makes him a box-office draw.
The most important thing from Argentina and Aston Villa’s perspective is that Martinez remains a serial winner. He could land his first piece of silverware at Villa Park come the end of the season, with the Lions still going strong in both the FA Cup and the Champions League, and will be front and centre again when Argentina defend their World Cup crown in North America next year.
Martinez will never be the best goalkeeper in the business, or the most likeable, but football’s great provocateur deserves immense credit for maximising his potential, and as always, what comes next is sure to be fascinating.
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