Football

Emiliano Martínez seizes chance at Arsenal to make sacrifices worthwhile | Nick Ames


Emiliano Martínez had seen his loved ones at their lowest ebb and it made his decision for him. He had not seriously expected his trial at Arsenal to be much more than work experience, the kind that might come in useful when a European move called more loudly. There would be plenty of time for that, given he had barely turned 17 and was making strides at Independiente, but then came another call from London and he had to grit his teeth.

“In my mind, there was no way I was going to leave my family,” Martínez says of that initial trip. “It was not a poor, poor background but my family struggled a lot in financial terms. I arrived back in Argentina and, a week after, I had the offer from Arsenal.

“I saw my brother and mum cry, saying: ‘Please don’t go.’ But I had also seen my dad crying late at night because he could not pay the bills. So I had to be brave at the time, because I said ‘yes’ for them.”

Even if Martínez’s career had not taken such a dramatic upturn in the past six weeks, they would have had plenty to be proud of. He has carved out a happy life in London with his wife, Mandinha, and their two-year-old son, Santi, and with 10 years to his name he is Arsenal’s longest-serving player. Nobody achieves that without a blend of talent and stoicism; the issue was that, for most of the time, he had been unable to showcase the former in public.

Six loan spells and only 25 appearances for Arsenal later, Martínez got his biggest break. He did not want it to come through an injury to Bernd Leno, but that tends to be a goalkeeper’s lot and it may have transformed his own career. There has arguably not been a better No 1 in the top flight this summer. Martínez has been outstanding in his 10 subsequent starts and a measure is that, even though Leno is nearing fitness, Mikel Arteta guaranteed last weekend he would start in the FA Cup final.

“A second-choice goalkeeper can sometimes say: ‘Oh, it’s a lack of games, it’s different when you train compared to when you play,’” he says. “But there is no excuse if you do everything right. My wife was saying to me in lockdown: ‘Why do you train so much?’ Because I thought I might have my chance, I might do it. And look, I have it.”

Martínez has a full-size goal in his garden and occupied it during much of the enforced break, sometimes asking Mandinha to load a “ball launcher” machine so he could face pot shots. Perhaps that explains her question but Martínez has answered everyone who wondered why he stuck around so long at Arsenal. Last summer he was tired of being shunted elsewhere and would have left if Unai Emery had not promised a fight with Leno for the jersey. Now he is thriving under Arteta, a close friend during the now-manager’s playing days. The pair’s embrace after another stellar display from Martínez in the FA Cup semi-final was laden with history.

Martínez and Mikel Arteta celebrate after reaching the FA Cup final



Martínez and Mikel Arteta celebrate after reaching the FA Cup final Photograph: Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images

“We shared dinners together, I went to his house,” he says. “We’d drink maté, because his wife is Argentinian. He was a lovely guy. Obviously now he’s manager and I respect him as a manager. When he hugged me the way he did I felt I’d done a good job, that’s the first thing that came into my mind. I was so happy for him as well, his first year and he reaches an FA Cup final. It’s something he needs to be proud of.”

He explains that Arteta “hates long balls” so it is useful that, for someone who stands 6ft 5in, Martínez is preternaturally composed in possession. Arsenal’s first goal against Manchester City stemmed from an 18-pass move that, at one point, saw him receive the ball virtually on the goal-line as Gabriel Jesus pressed. He let it run across on to his left foot before passing to Granit Xhaka and that came specifically from a request in training by Arteta, who “100%” exercises the closest attention to detail of any manager he has encountered.

“Before maybe I would control with my right foot, but then I controlled with my left and had more time,” he says. “That’s what [Arteta] is giving everyone, a bit more time, a bit more structure to have time, and everybody is finding we are more comfortable.”

The only regret before facing Chelsea is that his parents, Susana and Alberto, will be absent. He has not seen them for a year and fears they may not reunite until next summer’s Copa América. During his childhood, he remembers seeing them go without food so that he and his brother, Alejandro, could eat. Money was so tight that, when Martínez was a youngster at Independiente and living in Buenos Aires, they could not afford the petrol to visit him from Mar del Plata, 250 miles away. “I know what they did for me to reach the top, where I am now,” he says, and seeing them at the final would have meant the world.

These days are a far cry from his first year at Arsenal, when he was not old enough to play in official matches for the age-group sides and often cut a lonesome figure around the training facilities. It was difficult to settle – the requirement to travel between England and Argentina every three months, until he received a European passport, did not help – and that is why, this season, he has been ensuring the young Brazilian Gabriel Martinelli has had the help he never really received. There were tough moments but the thought of quitting never surfaced.

“I said to my mum when I turned 18 and moved into my first flat in Enfield: ‘I don’t want to come back to my country with nothing, I want to make a career here.’ I did not want to be one of those frustrated players who go to Europe and come back with nothing.” Starting at Wembley, he may now get his chance to go for everything.



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