Emiliano Martínez: From Farewell to European Glory
Emiliano Martínez stood on the brink of goodbye. Now he stands on the brink of history.
Last May at Villa Park, the World Cup winner walked around the pitch in tears after the final game against Tottenham, waving as if closing a chapter. It looked like a farewell. It felt like one. A year on, he is one match away from becoming a European champion in claret and blue.
On Wednesday in Istanbul, Aston Villa face Freiburg in the Europa League final, chasing their first major trophy in 30 years. Martínez, who joined the club in September 2020, has no doubts he chose correctly when he decided to stay.
“I said goodbye and I cried when I left my family from Argentina to England, and I'm still with family,” the 33-year-old said, drawing a clear line between his homeland and the club that has become his second home.
Football moves fast. Managers change, squads turn over, projects are ripped up and rebuilt. Martínez has lived all of that, but his attachment to Villa has hardened, not faded.
“Sometimes football can change, managers come and go. It doesn’t mean I don’t have full respect and love for the club. I had a commitment with Aston Villa, I am a World Cup winner with Aston Villa and I won two golden gloves.
“I will always and forever love this club no matter what. Some day I’ll retire and someone else will go between the sticks.”
That sense of permanence, of belonging, underpins Villa’s rise under Unai Emery. The goalkeeper’s praise for his coach is unequivocal.
“We have a top coach – we don’t wish [to have] anyone else on the bench apart from him leading us to a European final.
“When we stick together and fight together we can beat anybody. I am really proud to stay and I made the right choice.”
The right choice for him, and as it turns out, the right moment for Villa. From a squad flirting with a return to the Championship not so long ago to one now a step from European glory, the transformation has been stark.
Martínez, never shy of the spotlight, knows his own role if the final tightens and the tension spikes from 12 yards. He would rather Villa settle it early. But if it goes the distance, he is ready.
“I always have shoot-outs in my mind. It’s something I really enjoy, it’s like different competition, I don’t know how to explain it.
“Hopefully ‘Ginny’ (John McGinn) scores two goals and we finish in 90 minutes but if not I prepared and back myself every day of the week in shoot-outs.”
Penalty shoot-outs are his theatre. Istanbul could yet provide another act.
If Martínez is the defiant face of Villa’s ambition, McGinn is the heartbeat of their journey. The captain arrived in 2018, helped drag the club out of the Championship and has driven this season’s surge with 10 goals across all competitions.
From the grind of second-tier football to a European final, his path mirrors the club’s.
Asked if leading Villa out in Istanbul will be the proudest moment of his career, McGinn did not hesitate.
“I would say so, yeah. It has been a brilliant journey, full of ups and downs, close moments, very close to going back to the Championship.
“It fills me with pride as to where the club is now and it also fills me with pride as to where this club could go, like the manager has touched upon, this isn’t something we want to come here, celebrate and have a fanfare, we want to be focused on this match.
“We know how difficult it is to get to a final.
“But if you ask me on a personal level, throughout the years I have been here, definitely this is the proudest moment as captain here.”
No fanfare, then. Not yet. Just Martínez, McGinn and a squad that has dragged Villa back to the sharp end of European football, standing 90 minutes – or perhaps a Martínez shoot-out – from ending three decades of waiting and reshaping what this club believes it can be.
