Emiliano Martínez

• 1. Introduction

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  Emiliano Martínez stood in goal at the Lusail Stadium on the 18th of December 2022, with the FIFA World Cup final against France locked at 3-3 after extra time. In the seconds before the penalty shootout began, he was already working. He argued with referees about ball placement. He shouted at players as they approached the spot. He tossed the ball to the side of the penalty area so Aurélien Tchouaméni would have to walk over and retrieve it. When Randal Kolo Muani lined up his kick, Martínez pointed at him and said "I've watched you." The referee gave him a yellow card. Argentina won 4-2 on penalties, and Martínez was named the best goalkeeper of the tournament.

  The story of how a boy from Mar del Plata spent nearly a decade as a backup goalkeeper in England, then emerged as the most polarising shot-stopper in world football, runs through some of the strangest episodes in the modern game. How did patience, psychology, and a nickname borrowed from a cartoon character all converge into three Golden Glove awards? And what happens when brilliance and controversy share the same pair of gloves?

• 2. Mar del Plata to London

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  Damián Emiliano Martínez Romero was born on the 2nd of September 1992 in Mar del Plata, a coastal city in Argentina. His full name carries a small piece of family history: his mother originally wanted to name him Emiliano Martínez, but after his grandfather died before he was born, she added Damián to honor him. When she went to register the name at the post office, she spent hours waiting in the queue. By the time the clerk was ready, she reversed the order to Damián Emiliano rather than wait again. Martínez later explained that everyone at Arsenal spent years calling him Damián as a result, until he finally told them his real preference.

  He began his career at Independiente's youth setup in Argentina. At seventeen, shortly after his birthday in 2009, he was invited to trial at Arsenal in England. A goalkeeper coach at Independiente named Miguel Ángel Santoro had already given him the nickname "Dibu," an abbreviation of the Spanish word for drawing, after an animated character in the Argentine telenovela Mi familia es un dibujo. The series was popular at the time, and the nickname would follow Martínez for the rest of his career.

  After impressing during his trial and clearing a work permit, Martínez was formally registered as an Arsenal player in July 2010. What followed was not a swift rise. It was nearly a decade of waiting, lending, and occasional glimpses that suggested something more was underneath.

• 3. The Long Wait at Arsenal

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  Martínez made his first appearance in the Football League on the 5th of May 2012, for Oxford United on emergency loan, in the final game of their League Two season against Port Vale. Port Vale won 3-0. It was not a debut designed to announce a future World Cup winner.

  Over the years that followed, Martínez moved through a series of loan clubs: Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship in 2013, Rotherham United in early 2015, Wolverhampton Wanderers for the 2015-16 season, Getafe in La Liga for 2017-18, and Reading in early 2019. At each stop he showed enough to keep Arsenal interested but not enough to claim a permanent starting place. At Rotherham, he helped the team lose only one of their final six matches and avoid relegation, becoming a fan favourite despite playing fewer than fifteen games.

  His moments at Arsenal itself were scattered across years. He made his debut for the club in a 6-1 League Cup win over Coventry City in September 2012. In the Champions League in November 2014, he kept a clean sheet in a 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund and was named in the UEFA Team of the Week. His first Premier League start came on the 29th of November 2014, against West Bromwich Albion, a match Arsenal won 1-0.

  The arrival of Petr Cech in the summer of 2015 pushed Martínez further down the pecking order. He was an unused substitute as Cech played in the 2015 Community Shield, a 1-0 win over Chelsea. By 2019, he had spent more of his Arsenal career at other clubs than at the Emirates Stadium itself. Then, on the 20th of June 2020, Bernd Leno was injured in the first half of Arsenal's match against Brighton, and Martínez came off the bench.

• 4. Breakthrough and Departure

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  From the moment Leno was carried off against Brighton in June 2020, Martínez did not let the starting position go. He saw out the remainder of the Premier League season as first choice, and former Arsenal striker Ian Wright described him as "commanding" and said he had played "brilliantly."

  On the 1st of August 2020, Martínez started in the FA Cup Final against Chelsea, making crucial saves as Arsenal won their 14th FA Cup. After the trophy was lifted, he was visibly emotional, reduced to tears on the pitch at Wembley. Less than a month later, on the 29th of August, he started the Community Shield against Liverpool, which Arsenal won on penalties.

  Despite everything, the club's intention was to return Leno to the starting position. Martínez made clear that he wanted to play first-choice football or leave. On the 16th of September 2020, he transferred to Aston Villa for a fee worth up to £20 million, signing a four-year contract. He was twenty-eight years old, and it had taken him a decade to reach this point. Five days after joining Villa, he saved a penalty from John Lundstram in a 1-0 win against Sheffield United, his debut for his new club.

• 5. Villa's Record Keeper

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  In his first full season at Aston Villa, Martínez kept fifteen clean sheets in the Premier League, equalling the club record set by Brad Friedel. He was named the Aston Villa Supporters' Player of the Season. Villa rewarded him with a contract extension in January 2022, tying him to the club until the end of the 2026-27 season.

  On the 1st of April 2023, he made his 100th Premier League appearance for Villa in a 2-0 win at Chelsea. His 34th clean sheet in that game broke the club record for the most clean sheets in a goalkeeper's first 100 Premier League games for Aston Villa, surpassing the thirty-three set by both Mark Bosnich and Brad Friedel. In April 2024, he saved two penalties in a shootout against Lille to send Villa to the Conference League semi-finals, earning a booking for gesturing toward Lille's supporters after one of the saves.

  On the eve of the 2024-25 season, Martínez made a deliberate choice to switch his shirt number from the traditional number 1 to number 23, the number he had worn for Argentina during their trophy-winning campaigns. He signed another contract extension in August 2024, this time running until 2029.

  In December 2024, he won the Premier League Save of the Month award for a goal-line stop against Nottingham Forest. He reached behind himself and swatted away a header from Nicolás Domínguez that had already passed him, in a match Villa lost 2-1. The following season, on the 20th of May 2026, Martínez started in the UEFA Europa League final as Aston Villa beat SC Freiburg 3-0. It was his first major European honour at club level, coming in his sixth season at the club. Not long before that final, in November 2025, Villa manager Unai Emery had stripped Martínez of his vice-captaincy, giving the role to Ezri Konsa, amid speculation the decision was connected to Martínez's attempts to leave the club the previous summer.

• 6. Argentina's Penalty Specialist

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  Martínez made his senior debut for Argentina on the 3rd of June 2021, in a 1-1 draw with Chile in a World Cup qualifier, after years of intermittent call-ups that produced no caps. His first competitive tournament match came on the 14th of June at the Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos in Brazil, again against Chile, again 1-1, in the opening game of the 2021 Copa América.

  In the semi-final against Colombia on the 6th of July 2021, Martínez saved three penalties in a 3-2 shootout win, though in that match he also subjected several Colombian takers to a barrage of insults. Davinson Sánchez, Yerry Mina, and Edwin Cardona all had their kicks saved. Argentina went on to win the final 1-0 against Brazil, with Martínez keeping a clean sheet. He received the Copa América Golden Glove.

  At the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, his performances in the knockouts became the defining images of Argentina's campaign. Against the Netherlands in the quarter-final, he saved penalties from Virgil van Dijk and Steven Berghuis in the shootout, after a match played at significant psychological intensity. In the final against France, with the game at 3-3 in extra time, he made a crucial save from a one-on-one with Randal Kolo Muani in the final minute. Argentina won 4-2 on penalties. Martínez won a second Golden Glove, and was also named The Best FIFA Men's Goalkeeper for 2022.

  At the 2024 Copa América, he saved two penalties against Ecuador in the quarter-final, then played the full match as Argentina defeated Colombia 1-0 after extra time in the final on the 14th of July 2024. He won the Golden Glove a third time. In September 2024, FIFA banned him for two matches for actions in qualifying matches: he had held a replica Copa América trophy to his groin after a win against Chile, and assaulted a television camera following a 2-1 loss to Colombia. By July 2024, across five shootouts for Argentina and Aston Villa, opponents had converted only 12 of 23 penalty attempts against him, a 52% rate, compared to the average shootout conversion rate of 70-80%.

• 7. The Psychology of the Penalty Box

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  Former goalkeeper Matt Pyzdrowski described Martínez's penalty approach as "one of the most aggressive and disruptive approaches that you will ever see." Felipe Cardenas of The Athletic characterised his methods as "theatrical." These descriptions capture something specific about how Martínez treats the period before a penalty is struck.

  During the 2023-24 season, with Aston Villa playing Manchester United at Old Trafford, United were awarded a stoppage-time penalty. As Bruno Fernandes set up to take it, Martínez loudly asked him why his teammate Cristiano Ronaldo was not taking it instead. Fernandes kicked the ball over the crossbar. Villa won 1-0.

  The 2022 World Cup quarter-final against the Netherlands produced one of the more catalogued sequences. Martínez pretended to hand the ball to Steven Berghuis before pulling it away, kicked the ball to the side while staring down Teun Koopmeiners, and rolled the ball into the centre circle as Wout Weghorst approached. Both Berghuis and van Dijk missed.

  Hugo Lloris, the French goalkeeper who faced Martínez in the 2022 World Cup final, later said: "There are some things I can't do. Making a fool of myself in goal, rattling my opponents, crossing that line... I'm too rational and honest a man to go that way." The International Football Association Board has discussed whether to change the rules to discourage similar tactics. When told about the prospect of rule changes, Martínez answered: "I already saved the penalties that I had to save."

• 8. Reputation and Debate

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  Martínez has won the Yashin Trophy, the award for the world's best goalkeeper, twice, in 2023 and 2024, matching Gianluigi Donnarumma's total to set a joint record. He won The Best FIFA Men's Goalkeeper award in both 2022 and 2024, also a record for two wins.

  The praise has not been universal. In 2025, Phil McNulty, BBC Sport's chief football writer, stated: "Some Aston Villa fans may regard this as sacrilege, but I actually think Emi Martínez is overrated. He is certainly not 'the world's number one', as we are so often told. Far from it, in fact." Before the 2024 Yashin Trophy announcement, analysts noted that Martínez's goals prevented relative to expected goals ranked below several other nominees, including Yann Sommer, Unai Simón, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Giorgi Mamardashvili, and Gregor Kobel. Goal journalist James Westwood wrote after the award was announced that Martínez 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."

  During the 2023-24 season, Martínez became the goalkeeper with the most own goals in Premier League history, with three. In the 2024-25 season he conceded 45 Premier League goals, with only four goalkeepers in the division conceding more. Among the 43 goalkeepers to appear in the Premier League that season, he ranked 36th in the difference between expected goals he faced and those he actually conceded.

  On the 22nd of December 2022, more than 150,000 people gathered at Las Toscas resort in Mar del Plata to welcome him home after the World Cup victory. Whatever analysts say about shot-stopping metrics, that reception in his native city suggests the gap between statistics and what Martínez represents to Argentine football may be the most consequential number of all.