‘Dibu’ Martínez, the histrionic ‘parapenaltis’ that leaves Argentina one step away from the final

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Dibu had already saved the penalties before launching. Before also the Netherlands and Argentina formed in silence just seconds before the start of the quarterfinals. There was a thunderous silence among the 22 players. They didn’t even look at each other. Until the Argentine goalkeeper turned back (in front of him he only had Messi) and said: “Look outside, eh! Look outside. The whole party is going to be screwed uphuh. The whole game!” Said the goalkeeper while no one around him moved a single muscle on his face.

“We always talk inside the field, never outside, eh! Always inside.” And both teams left the tunnel to finally set foot on the grass. The Dibu also had another hidden inner energy. I had provided it Van Gaal. “He said that the Netherlands would have an advantage if they went to penalties. I saw it, I captured it and I kept it on my cell phone and I showed it to Martín,” he said, referring to Martin Tocalli, Scaloni’s goalkeeper coach in the national team.

Complicity with the psychologist

“And I also showed it to my psychologist and he lit the dynamite.” His psychologist is david priestley, whom he met in his brief stint at Arsenal until he now became his head specialist. He also turned to him after Argentina’s disastrous debut against Saudi Arabia (1-2).

His save in added time in the round of 16 match against Australia He had already turned him into a kind of domestic idol: congratulated by his peers and applauded by the press in his country; but little more because all the spotlights pointed to Messi.

However, his figure grew to heroic in the quarterfinal match against the Netherlands. In the penalty shootout, specifically. And in everything that surrounded her, a torrent of reproaches, insults, threats and intimidation.

In that terrain he moves like a fish in water Damian Emiliano Martinezthe ‘Dibu’, goalkeeper of the astonville and the Argentine team that stopped the first two penalties of the shootout (to Van Dijk and Berghuis) and paved the way for Argentina’s agonizing access to the semifinals.

Goycochea’s praise

Their hug with Messi After the game, he is already part of the most iconic images of the Argentine team during the tournament.

There was no shortage of those who remembered Sergio Goycochea, the Argentine goalkeeper who became a hero for his country during the World Cup in Italy (1990), decisive in the penalty shootouts against Yugoslavia and Italy.

Goycochea himself, a television commentator, watched his country’s qualification for the semifinals live at the Lusail stadium.

At 30 years old, Martínez is living the opportunity of his life: he made his senior debut on June 3, 2021 against Chile, in a World Cup qualifying match.

From anonymous to idol

That day, the Argentine fans discovered an almost anonymous goalkeeper until then: not in vain has he spent practically his entire career in English football, since he in 2010 Arsenal signed him from the Independiente quarry.

It didn’t take long for him to see his name on the covers when Argentina reached the Copa América final. He did it in the penalty shootout against Colombia, with ‘Dibu’ taking center stage: before two Colombians took their penalties, the Argentine goalkeeper intimidated them.

“I’m going to eat you. I’m sorry but I eat you brother”, he shouted before Dávinson Sánchez. A Yerry Mina did exactly the same to him. “You’re not going to party, are you? You’re laughing because you’re nervous, huh? You’re nervous. Yeah, yeah, make yourself the idiot that I know you. She looks that if you cross it I’ll cut it for you. She looks that I eat you brother, look that I eat you, brother & rdquor ;. When Mina missed, Martínez celebrated as if he had scored a goal.

Shone in the Copa América

His way of acting, histrionic and expansive, was evident in the eyes of the world. Argentina would win the Copa América against Brazil in the Maracana, a detail that reinforced Martínez’s ownership in the absolute. ‘Draw’ was named best goalkeeper of the tournament.

Nicknamed ‘Draw’ by a cartoon character of an Argentine series (“when I arrived at Independiente it was a bit reddishwith freckles, and they began to tell me that I looked like the cartoon”, he said in his day), Martínez did it again against the Dutch team.

After saving his second penalty of the shootout, already stroking the pass to the semifinals, he couldn’t help but dance in front of the Argentine stands. It was a moment of extreme tension and the doorman released adrenaline with a dance that many interpreted as a disrespect.

passion and heart

After the game, he spoke to the press. She did it with her heart in her hand, in a sanguine and visceral speech. “I feel emotion. I do this for the 45 million Argentines that they are not having a good financial moment, and giving joy to people is the best thing I have at the moment. Later the boys were tired, I felt that I had to help them there and I couldn’t. Thank God later I saved two penalties, which could have been more. We have eggs, passion and heart“.

Martínez briefly spent time in Spanish football: in the 2017-18 season he played six games -four in the League and two in the Cup- defending the goal of the Getafe to the orders of Bordalás.

The most expensive

The rest of his career is defined by his constant loan spells, from Arsenal to other middle-class teams in English football. In 2020, he had the opportunity to continue at Arsenal.

He was the FA Cup champion in August 2020: he played in the final that the ‘gunner’ club won against him Chelseaa performance that made him an immediate target for Aston Villa.

A month later, the Birmingham team paid €21.5 million for him: he is the most expensive Argentine goalkeeper in history. In his first season at Villa Park, he was named the team’s best player.

an iron personality

More than the technique, the ‘Dibu’ stands out for its personality. “He was a fighter since he was little. He never spared any effort. We tried to incorporate techniques into those innate conditions,” explains one of his trainers, Miguel Ángel Santoro, to ‘La Nación’.

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“In Independiente he finished training and then polished himself abroad. He always showed great self-confidence in goal. That is something fundamental for the position. The goalkeeper makes decisions in an instant that have repercussions for the whole team”, adds Santoro.

The Dibu, which was refused when I was a child (I was 11 years old) for Boca Juniors first and River Plate Later, he saved two penalties against the Netherlands and disguised himself as Goycochea. “I didn’t think, I just thought that I was going to shut up“He’s been like this all his life. Silencing mouths, stopping ‘penalties’ and becoming one of the mental and sporting leaders of Messi’s Argentina.



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