CHENNAI: For the better part of the last decade, Argentina's Emiliano Martinez was an unwanted Arsenal custodian who was being sent on loans. Then, one injury to Bernd Leno changed everything. On Sunday, he became the world champion.
Connect Oxford United (England's fourth tier in 2011-12), Sheffield Wednesday (second tier in 2013-14), Rotherham United (second tier in 2014-15), Wolves (second tier in 2015-16), Getafe (Spain's top division in 2017-18) and Reading (England's second tier in 2018-19)? It's all the clubs Emiliano Martinez went on loan in the last decade since moving to Arsenal as a teenager in 2010.
The Argentine had caught the eye of an Arsenal scout during a continental-wide age-group event. Arsenal moved quickly to sign him. As is the case when clubs sign teenagers, Martinez started playing for the club's age-group sides. But a combination of factors meant that Martinez was never trusted with the gloves for an extended period of time. It didn't help that Arsenal resembled a crisis club at least once every few months as the last six years of Arsene Wenger's reign unravelled.
Martinez himself experienced first-hand the travails of Wenger's late-era Arsenal. He was involved in a madcap 12-goal thriller which saw him concede four first-half goals before Arsenal won 7-5. Some of the defending was highly questionable but Martinez didn't cover himself in glory. While he played under all of the last three permanent Arsenal managers (Wenger, Unai Emery and Mikel Arteta), none of them saw Martinez as the man they wanted under the sticks.
So, till June 2020, Martinez's most memorable involvement in an Arsenal shirt was that 12-goal thriller at Reading in 2012. In June 2020, an injury to Bernd Leno, an Emery signing in 2018, changed everything for Martinez. In one of the first games back amid the pandemic, the German had a nasty injury following a collision. With the transfer window shut, Arteta had no option but to turn towards the Argentine.
Three shut-outs in the league and an against-the-odds FA Cup title propelled him from 'meh' to 'hmmm' to 'wow' in the space of 50 days. There was also one gravity-defying, Tom Cruise-style save off Trent Alexander Arnold in the last minute of injury time during this sequence of results. That save meant Arsenal had beaten Liverpool for the first time in years in the Premier League.
There was a growing clamour to sell Leno and make Martinez the first-choice keeper but Arteta wasn't all that convinced. In the end, Arsenal kept Leno and sold Martinez to Aston Villa in September 2020. Even if the club wanted to retain him, his increase in value meant they couldn't ignore Villa's valuation, believed to be roughly 20 million pounds.
Argentina began taking interest in Martinez almost immediately. He was called up to the squad but was an unused substitute in each of their first three games in late 2020. That 2020-21 season, he was one of the signings of the season as he finished with 15 clean sheets, third best in that metric behind Edouard Mendy (Chelsea) and Ederson Moraes (Manchester City). He went from second-choice Argentina keeper to playing a starring role at the Copa America in 2021, including a shoot-out win against Colombia in the semi-finals.
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That shoot-out was made famous because of Martinez's approach to penalties. He put the penalty-takers off their game with gamesmanship (trash talk). He either engaged with them or threw the ball away, he basically got into their heads. Each save or miss also brought in-your-face celebrations. While he earned a few detractors, Lionel Messi became a fan. He called him 'phenomenal'. A clean sheet in the final helped Argentina break a 28-year senior title drought. That trash talk made waves around the world. He told one of the Colombians 'I'm sorry, but I will stop you, bro'. He saved it. To another of the Colombians, he had said, 'I know where you will shoot, I will save it'. He had saved that as well.
Around that time, he also gave an explosive interview about his time at Arsenal. During that loan at Reading, something snapped. He had fallen out of love with the game. He didn't want to keep going on loan. He either wanted to play as No. 1 at Arsenal or go somewhere else on a full-time basis.
Speaking with a psychologist
"I put myself in a position: I have a newborn baby, this is going to be my last loan," he had told Football Daily ahead of the 2021-22 season. "I got that in my head, I started with a psychologist that helped me through my bad moment, it helped me to get past my frustrations. Because I always believed I had the talent, I always believed in myself, that I could be one of the best." He was playing week in, week out at Villa. He was Argentina's No 1. There was going to be a World Cup in less than 18 months' time. He had always had the belief but now he was getting significant match time.
At the World Cup, Martinez has come up with two one-on-one saves in injury time (against Australia at 2-1 and 3-3 against France). While his save off Kolo Muani and Garang Kuol were sensational in the context of the match, it was just Martinez sticking to the one basic tenet of elite goalkeeping. 'Make yourself as big as possible'. Both times, he did that — his significant 6'4" frame helped — and forced the error from the players as they missed big chances.
Now, he's an average keeper while facing penalties in regulation time but what separates him is his otherworldly record in shoot-outs. He reduces it to a simple mano a mano (think of it as peak MS Dhoni against a bowler when chasing) battle. He's probably the world's best because of his confrontational style.
You can argue it makes for ugly scenes but research has held that putting extra pressure on the spot-kickers does have the desired benefit. Extra pressure here includes everything from engaging in some trash talk to making the players wait. Against Colombia, he was trash-talking till the cows came home. Against both sets of players (France and Netherlands) at the World Cup, his other shenanigans were visible. Either speaking with them or trying to shake hands or celebrating wildly. Before Aurelian Tchoumeni's kick, he actually threw the ball away, forcing the youngster to wait longer.
In an interview with The Athletic, former Villa goalkeeping coach, Neil Cutler, explained how his ward and he spoke about this. "We would have conversations about what you can do to maximise your chances (against penalties),” he had told them in November. "The plan, whoever took the penalty, was to get into their head. He is so driven to win and improve every day. The point you need to get Emi to is when his confidence is verging on arrogance." It's why whenever you see him in a shoot-out, there is that unmistakable swagger (some goalkeepers — Croatia's Dominik Livakovic for example — adopt the other approach. Do not engage).
It's that confidence that has helped him in each of his three shoot-outs for Argentina. He has faced 14 in the shoot-out across those three matches but has conceded only seven (six saves, one miss). Those are mind-boggling numbers considering nearly 80% of all penalties are goals.
From Oxford United in England's fourth tier (he was at that club for four days as he was an emergency loan signing) in May 2012 to the best keeper at the world's biggest stage in December 2022, it's been quite the journey.
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