Emiliano Martínez: From Farewell to European Final
Emiliano Martínez stood on the brink of a European final and allowed himself a moment to look back.
Twelve months ago, the Aston Villa goalkeeper walked around Villa Park in tears after the final game of the season against Tottenham, waving to the supporters as if closing a chapter. It felt like goodbye. It very nearly was.
Now he is one match away from becoming a European champion in claret and blue.
From almost farewell to Istanbul
At the end of the 2024-25 campaign, the World Cup winner looked destined to move on. His emotional lap of honour, the wave to the stands, the visible struggle to hold it together – all the signs pointed towards a parting of ways.
He stayed. And the decision has dragged him into the heart of one of the most significant weeks in Villa’s modern history.
On Wednesday in Istanbul, Unai Emery’s side face Freiburg with the chance to lift the club’s first major trophy in 30 years. For Martínez, who joined Villa in September 2020, it is validation of a choice that could easily have gone the other way.
“I said goodbye and I cried when I left my family from Argentina to England, and I'm still with family,” he said, drawing a straight line between that first wrenching move and his bond with Villa today.
Football moves quickly. Managers change, squads turn over, projects get ripped up and started again. Martínez has lived all of that, yet his message now is rooted in loyalty.
“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.”
Emery, belief and a united dressing room
If Martínez is the emotional barometer of this Villa side, Emery is its metronome. The goalkeeper did not hide where the dressing room’s faith lies.
“We have a top coach (Unai Emery) – 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.”
Those are not throwaway lines. Villa have rebuilt themselves around that sense of collective fight, a group that survived nervy flirtations with the Championship and has now fought its way onto one of the grandest stages in Europe.
For Martínez, Istanbul is not just a destination. It is the payoff for staying when leaving looked easier.
Penalties in the back pocket
Martínez’s reputation in shoot-outs is already carved into football folklore. The Aston Villa No 1 will happily live with the chaos of spot-kicks if it comes to that, even as he hopes his outfield teammates spare him the drama.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
That blend of mischief and steel has become his trademark. For opponents, it is a problem. For Villa, it is a safety net.
McGinn’s proudest walk
If Martínez is the defiant heartbeat, John McGinn is the enduring thread that runs through Villa’s recent history.
The captain arrived in 2018, when the club were still wrestling with the Championship and the fear of slipping further away from the elite. He helped drag them back to the Premier League. He has been there for the close calls, the anxious springs, the narrow escapes.
Now he stands on the cusp of leading Villa out in a European final.
The 31-year-old has scored 10 goals across all competitions this season, but his influence goes far beyond numbers. Asked whether this occasion will be the proudest moment of his career, he 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. No sightseeing. Just a final to win and a chance to turn years of struggle, survival and steady growth into silverware.
For Martínez, for McGinn, for a club that has waited three decades, Istanbul is not a celebration of arrival. It is a test of what they are ready to become next.
