Aston Villa star Emiliano Martínez is today highlighted in Spain, where newspaper El País features a full-page story about him.
The outlet claims that after winning a World Cup with Argentina, the goalkeeper now ‘leads’ Unai Emery’s side in their great Premier League campaign.
El País does a nice job telling Martinez’s story, and even managed to interview Francis Cagigao, who was responsible for bringing Martinez to Arsenal back in 2010.
The official used to work in Arsène Wenger’s staff at the time, and turned the club’s attention towards the goalkeeper’s performance in Argentina.
“He was an unorthodox goalkeeper. Big, with big mitts, quick for his size and brave. I immediately thought he was perfect for the Premiership and for us,” said Cagigao.
“I called the Argentinian scout to start following him at Independiente, and on my return I told Gerry Peyton, the goalkeeping coach, Arsène and Steve Rowley, the head of scouting, that we had a diamond in the rough. We arranged a trial period. Gerry really liked him and we decided to pay $500,000 plus a million if he played 20 games. Richard Law, our director of operations at the time, closed the deal.”
Martinez joined Arsenal on a €1.5m deal from Independiente. He belonged to the Gunners for eight years, but only made 38 appearances for the club, as in that period, he had loans at Oxford United, Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Getafe and Reading.
“Emiliano was always the subject of a lot of discussion within the club; in some transfers things didn’t work out well for him, but the boy showed himself to be very strong mentally,” said Cagigao.
“Without that strength he wouldn’t have got to where he is now because I know he struggled. He eventually got the job and won the FA Cup with Arsenal. When in 2020 Mikel couldn’t secure a starting place between him and Leno, Emi made the brave decision to leave. He left more than €24m in the club’s coffers. Since then his progression has been spectacular.”
It was in the summer of 2020 that Aston Villa signed the Argentina international. That went very well for them, as they now not only have a World Cup winner in their squad, but also a player who became a hero at the club, and Arsenal may have second thoughts about whether they could’ve kept him there.
