When the great Brian Glanville wrote Goalkeepers are different Five decades ago, I had no way of knowing how far Emiliano Martínez would push the boundaries of his concept.
It says a lot about the guy in Aston Villa’s goal that he is uniquely qualified to be voted football’s most cartoonish villain and one of the game’s best goalkeepers. Somehow, “different” doesn’t quite cover his extremities.
Of course, there is genius in Martínez. The way he performed against Bayern Munich in midweek offered a reminder that he was less than necessary, because we know the depth of his quality. Just as we are well aware that one side of your brain has evolved at a faster rate than the half invaded by squirrels.
Harry Kane saw Martínez’s brilliance up close on Wednesday night, as did Serge Gnabry and Michael Olise – great chances were met with difficult saves. Jhon Durán was the starter but Martínez was the insurmountable layer between a victory and a draw or worse. We said the same thing about the last World Cup final and we could say it again when Villa take on Manchester United on Sunday.
If there is a better player at his position, then the conversation is limited to a few names. Alisson Becker takes it for my money. Thibaut Courtois is also in that mix and Ederson, David Raya, Unai Simon and Gianluigi Donnarumma make compelling cases.
Emiliano Martínez’s heroics helped Aston Villa beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League
He may be the most cartoonish villain in football, but he is also one of the best goalkeepers in football.
Certainly, all of them have proven to be capable of making a difference in results and campaigns. But none of those guys are any different than Martínez.
They didn’t end last month with a two-match international suspension from FIFA and they didn’t start this week with a promise that likely won’t be kept. In these surreal matters, Martínez is alone; a goalkeeper whose ability to finish big games is matched by that compulsion he has to push his crotch against the spoils of victory.
Love moves in mysterious ways, but no movement is as mysterious, as strange, as Martínez’s hips move every time a prize is within reach.
There was his love affair with the Golden Glove at the 2022 World Cup. And, indeed, its equivalent at the 2021 Copa América, before he became too familiar with the main trophy when Argentina won it again a few weeks ago.
Goodness, if Aston Villa’s early form in the Champions League leads them to an unlikely destination, two things would be true at once: Martínez will have played a key role and UEFA will surely have to hire snipers to protect their grand old cup .
But let’s go back to that promise he spread through social media on Monday. Martinez says his days of pushing are over. He apologizes. He said that the objective of his celebration is ‘to make many children smile’, and added: ‘It was never my intention to disrespect anyone, nor did I understand that a gesture well received by people was offensive, but I will do it.’ Try not to offend anyone else.’
He made similar statements after the World Cup, when his moment on the podium caused Patrick Vieira to become quite angry. Martínez, he said, had “taken away a little of what Argentina achieved.” It was not an isolated vision.
Martínez’s hip thrust while holding his 2022 World Cup Gold Glove generated controversy
But this year he made a similar gesture while holding a replica of the Copa América gong.
Martínez was rude and was beaten for it. Justly. But that’s his style and his humor: genius often puts squirrels to work and you can’t reason with squirrels.
In Argentina’s most recent Copa América title last month, just before his date with the trophy, he hit a camera and FIFA didn’t like that much either.
Nor did people respond with universal approval when he slammed his crotch into Kylian Mbappé’s face before a penalty in the World Cup final and then cradled a doll, masked with an image of the same player’s face, in the bus parade. .
That’s what Martínez does: he is childish, a 32-year-old man without a filter. A master of goalkeeping and cunning. A serial irritant who polices as many lines as he crosses. He irritates, he provokes. He is, above all, different.
And that is welcomed in the most peculiar way. Now more than ever, perhaps.
We live in football’s petri dish era, its era of pompous prudishness, when the curation of perfection goes to horribly sanitized places. We want angels and we beat those with dirty wings, but the sport needs its rogues.
A trophy fetish might be a push too far in a silly direction, but at least Martinez has flavor. He’s the crazy, silly, human face of a game that gravitates toward robots and VAR lines.
Martínez is a master of the goalkeeper and the game, a 32-year-old man without a filter
It’s a splash of color and the human face of a game that gravitates toward robots and VAR.
It’s a splash of color when so many other personalities are repressed and boring; the kind of person who needs to be reminded at annual intervals that rubbing his crotch on a trophy in front of a camera is inappropriate. But he is a free spirit and that has tremendous value.
Speaking to those at Aston Villa and those around him, they would prefer to highlight the other qualities, which are the ones that win games.
They also speak of a man whose commitment to his craft is second to none and the proof is in the result: to witness his rise from the fringes of Arsenal to winning the World Cup is to conclude that his £17m signing in 2020 was one of the best deals in the world. last decade of the Premier League. He worked devilishly hard to make it that way.
After Bayern’s victory, Martínez took advantage of that by saying: “I’m crazy to continue growing and become the best.” I have no roof, I want to continue growing.’
He could have stopped that speech after three words and no one would have questioned his assessment. We might also wonder if his commitment to growth will lead to conformity at the end of a week in which both aspects of his character were tested.
But let’s hope the squirrels retain some voting rights within their internal monologues. The goalkeepers must be different.
McCarthy should have stayed silent.
There’s nothing like a good fight and nowhere is there a fight like Manchester United. It must be hard for Erik ten Hag to keep track of all the boots that have dug into his ribs in these apocalyptic days.
But he may have been surprised by the kicking he received from Benni McCarthy, whose two-year tenure as United’s attacking coach ended in the summer.
Some of what McCarthy said was shockingly accurate: Passion matters, and Ten Hag shows little of it. We could also accept the South African’s criticism when he claimed that certain players were not trying hard in training, but that reminds us of McCarthy being fined £200,000 at West Ham in 2010 for being almost two kilos overweight.
He may not have passed the ‘show us your medals’ test in that case, and the same could be said for his wider record of coaching those forwards at United. In McCarthy’s two seasons, United scored 58 and 57 league goals. For context, in 11 post-Ferguson campaigns those counts rank seventh and eighth, so perhaps McCarthy should have kept his advice.
Of course, that’s not how a buildup works. When a manager goes down, you go for him. But Ten Hag did not act alone.
Benni McCarthy kicked Erik ten Hag in the ribs by declaring that the Dutchman lacked passion
But McCarthy should have kept his advice because Ten Hag’s failures were not his alone.
Sancho leaves Ten Hag with a red face
Cole Palmer is casting a long, bright shadow in what has been an exceptional start to the season for Chelsea. In the shadows, but not lost among everyone, is Jadon Sancho.
Last year around this time he was expelled from Manchester United’s first team lunches and today he has three assists in three games at Chelsea and opened up gaps at both West Ham and Brighton. He has the best dribbling stats in the league and heading into Sunday’s game against Nottingham Forest he looks like the winger we remember.
The one before his thoughts exploded into a misguided social media post. It’s strangely ironic that even in his absence he makes Erik ten Hag look bad.
