Aston Villa have a World Cup winner.
Emi Martinez was Argentina’s hero on Sunday evening as his penalty heroics secured a third World championship for the South American side.
Martinez was unbelievable between the sticks for Argentina. He very nearly saved Kylian Mbappe’s penalty during the game, while he did save Kingsley Coman’s in the shootout and his goalline antics clearly played a part in Aurelien Tchouameni’s miss.
Despite having an absolute rollercoaster of an afternoon, Martinez remained steely and unphased in his goal. Even dancing after one of France’s missed penalties.
However, there was only so long that Martinez could keep the emotion at bay, and after the game he let it all out.
As you can see, Martinez was incredibly emotional once his status as a World Champion was confirmed, bursting into tears.
If ever a player has earned the right to show this level of emotion in football – this is it.
Martinez kept his nerve in the nerviest of moments, but all that bottled up tension had to burst at some point.
No matter what happens in the rest of this player’s career, he will have been written into Argentinian folklore with his performances at this tournament.
Let’s not forget, it wasn’t just the final where Argentina were reliant on Martinez, he also had to bail them out in the quarter-finals against the Netherlands in a penalty shootout too.
The Aston Villa star more than earned his Golden Glove award in Qatar.
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