Dibu Martínez and the love of Argentine fans: in this case, a waiter at the restaurant where he chose to dine. Photo: RS Ramiro Souto.
Emiliano Martínez is all the rage on and off the pitch. The goalkeeper who has been crowned champion twice with the Argentine national team in less than a year has made just 17 appearances for the Major League diver. Serious thing. That handful of matches was enough for him to become a point of reference for Lionel Scaloni’s team, to be an immovable piece of the starting eleven and an idol of the people.
But this present is something that the drawing I have been dreaming since I was a little boy. He left for the UK at the age of 16 and worked to get to where he is today. The opportunity came 12 years later and since he made his debut in the goal of the national team, that June 3, 2021 against Chile in the Qualifiers, he has achieved one success after another.
First the Copa América against Brazil at Maracana – with the memory of the penalties against Colombia in the semifinal that saw him as protagonist – and now the Final against Italy at Wembley. The next goal is no small feat. You know you have an unbeatable chance. To compete in the World Cup in Qatar 2022, perhaps the last of Lionel Messi, with a team armed and used to winning. This is your chance to shine.
Dibu Martínez dined at a restaurant in La Recova, near the center of Buenos Aires. Photo: RS Ramiro Souto.
But to get to the World Cup well, Emiliano Martínez has to overcome a problem that has been tormenting him for a long time. A “discomfort” to the patellar tendon of the knee that the goalkeeper admitted to have “since he was 17” and that in recent times “has gotten a bit worse”, in his own words.
That’s why it’s in the countryside. While Old World footballers take advantage of the European summer break to travel to exotic places or sunbathe on the beaches of the Mediterranean, Dibu has traveled to Argentina, more precisely to a Mar del Plata that is as cool as it is peaceful and typical at this time of year. .
His idea is to do “a cure with Batista and the doctors of the national team” to be physically well and start the preseason with Aston Villa on July 7th. Therefore, he faces the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which begins in November, without joint problems.
Thus, the footballer trained at Independiente, returned home to spend time in La Feliz and take advantage of these “holidays” to overcome the knee problem.
Dibu Martínez is back in the national team thinking about the World Cup. Photo: AFP
His whole family is in Mardel. And people every time he walks through it treat him like a hero. He shows him the closeness and affection that he cannot have on a daily basis in England, where he has lived for ten years.
The images speak for themselves. The young people approached affectionately when they saw the goalkeeper of the Argentine national team take a photograph and immortalize the moment in the Recoleta restaurant, where the drawing he decided to have dinner with friends on his return to the countryside after the London victory.
Let’s go champion. Dibu Martínez and another trophy with the Argentine national team. Photo: REUTERS / David Klein.
Martínez’s words about his injury
The goalkeeper of the Argentine national team spoke at the press conference before the duel against Italy for the Final and clarified the doubts about his knee injury.
“Personally I am very well. I have heard people say that I could miss the World Cup or that I will be away for a few months and the truth is that I am really fine. I only missed one game to be fine for this one (against Italy)”, Martínez said.
“I don’t need anything, it’s a patellar pain I’ve had since I was 17, which with two or three years without stopping has worsened a bit, but taking a cure with Batista and the doctors of the National team I’ll be fine, on July 7th I’m in the preseason with Aston Villa, very well “, he concluded.
Source: Clarin
