Emi Martinez has earned his first call-up to the Argentina national team in over eight years after keeping clean sheets in both his Arsenal appearances this season.
The keeper was first given the nod by his country in 2011 when he was a promising 19-year-old. Damian, as he was known at the time, didn’t get on the pitch but big things were predicted as he progressed through the ranks at London Colney.
Such is the life of a glove butler, he’s had to bide his time for both club and country. After years out on loan, including stints with Oxford United, Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham, Wolves, Getafe and Reading, he’s finally worked his way up to number two in the pecking order at the Emirates.
#Convocatoria Lista de convocados de la Selección Mayor y Sub 23 para la doble fecha FIFA del mes de octubre. pic.twitter.com/YbU2wREjPr
— Selección Argentina ?? (@Argentina) September 27, 2019
Emi’s new status as our cup stopper appears to have caught the attention of national team coach Lionel Scaloni who has selected him alongside fellow keepers Porto’s Agustin Marchesin and Udinese’s Juan Musso for upcoming October Interlull matches with Germany and Ecuador.
We’re very pleased for Emi, who has looked great so far this season, and hope he gets to make his debut.
Good lad!
Great boost for his confidence.
Start him over Leno – yea or nay?
I say yea!
Well done you
Good luck to Martinez. Hope he kicks…er…catches on from here. I’m out of here!
Funny, until this article, I always thought he was Spanish. Does he qualify for both?
Don’t think he qualifies for Spain. Came over from Argentina in 2010. I met him at an u21 open training session when he was on trial. Think he was only 17. Hard to believe he is now the longest serving player at the club!
You must be thinking of Fawlty Manual Almunia, he’s the only Spanish keeper we’ve had.
Probably ate some Paella on loan at Getafe, but didnt do much keeping. No other spanish connection I’m aware of
This was one of his goals and he’s achieved it. Good luck to em!
Well deserved ?
That’s high praise coming from the GSTEL. All hail the lord!
Good luck to him. It’s great to see he’s finally getting the game time with us.
Having watched him a few times recently, I have no problem with Emi standing in for Leno, or if it were permanent. I think he’s very decent
Take the foward line of argentina out and you can understand why argentina have been struggling last few years ,the defensive player are really below standard , actually the whole argentian youth set up have to be rebuild, cant get result with just producing attacking player in the same position
and congrats to Martinez
Thats always been Argentinas problem. It was when they won their 2 world cups as well.
I’m sure he’ll fit in well in a team with great forward line, average midfield and poor defence….. He definitely has relevant experience.
Well done Emi!
27 is still very young for a gk… he’s got at least 10 more years ahead of him to fully realise potential!
At least 10 more years is a bit of a stretch. I’d rather say 5 to 10 (if everything is going well)
Buffon is 112!
I personally rate hom higer than any other goalkeeper for Argentina. Its his bad luck to be second or third keeper at clun level to have stopped him from being called up for Argentina. Surely better than Romero.
We’d better sign hom higer. Sounds like a great goalie.
Hope he will do better than Ospina in the role.
I don’t think Ospina has ever been Argentines Keeper ?
So he’s therefore probably on his best way to be better than him, right?
Even team sheets have sponsors now? What in the world…
South America, everything is sponsored. But to be fair, The Arsenal team sheets are sponsored by PES 2020.
Off topic
There is a small possibility that Liverpool may not be our next round opponents in the Carabo cup
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49862651
Zero chance, they’ll get a small fine and that will be the end of that.
Nah, I want Liverpool. Will be an excellent low risk experience for our youths.
Emery will play a strong side and lose to Liverpool’s second string. Mark my words.
Bellerin starts for the under 23’s today, I guess that rules him out of Old Trafford.
Congrats, Emi. Soar to greater heights.
My G. I will simply say this now: I believe Emi has a higher ceiling than Leno and if he is ultimately made Arsenal’s #1, we are better off for it.
He looks very assured, more so than Leno. Leno is a great keeper, though. A great problem to have.
In the mean time there’s plenty of cup games for Martinez to play, and on current performances I’d have no qualms with starting him in a final.
Blogs, a few points on the app update:
1. There’s no way to look at comments. You have to open the page in your browser. Very clunky.
2. You can’t swipe left and right to move between articles. Slightly inconvenient.
3. The format on the articles looks a bit amateurish in my eyes, but maybe I’m being harsh. Just looks like something someone has knocked up at home.
The menu formatting looks nice though, so I guess there’s that.
Future Arsenal no. 1?