Emiliano Martinez says he made the ‘right choice’ by staying at Aston Villa, after his failed move to Manchester United last summer.
It didn’t seem like it was exactly his choice when the Red Devils opted to sign Senne Lammens on transfer deadline day in September.
Martinez had looked extremely likely to leave Villa Park, waving to the fans with tears in his eyes on the final home game of the 2024/25 season.
The World Cup winner was left out of the Villa squad as they hosted Crystal Palace on August 31, with Marco Bizot starting in goal.
It looked as though this was the signal that Martinez was about to depart, although Unai Emery gave little away, responding to questions on the Argentinian’s future by repeating: ‘Bizot. Marco Bizot.’
However, Martinez went nowhere and was back in the team for the next Premier League outing, remaining first choice ever since.
Old Trafford had appeared to be where the ‘keeper was heading, but the Red Devils opted to bring in Lammens instead, a move which has proved largely successful so far.
The 33-year-old is now preparing for the Europa League final with Villa on Wednesday night, when they take on Freiburg in Istanbul, and he says he is pleased with how everything played out.
‘Well, I say goodbye and I cry when I left my family from Argentina to England as well,’ Martinez said of his tears at the end of last season. ‘Sometimes football can change, managers can come in and go. You know, in football people move around the place. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have full respect for the club. I love the club.
‘I have a commitment with Aston Villa. I am a World Cup winner with Aston Villa, I have won two Golden Gloves with Aston Villa. I will always and forever love this club. One day I am going to retire, so someone else will need to be between the sticks.
‘Listen, I am in a European final and we have got Champions League again with all the circumstances that we have had and battles we have had this year. We are one of the lowest spenders in the Premier League.
‘We have a top coach, a top captain [John McGinn] and a decent core of the team. When we stick together and when we fight together, I think that we can beat anybody. I am really proud to stay – I made the right choice.’
Martinez has been full of praise for Emery, who is bidding for a fifth Europa League title on Wednesday, having won the competition three times with Sevilla and once with Villarreal.
‘I think we deserve it, I think the fans deserve it, and obviously the manager has had four or five finals in this competition,’ said the goalkeeper.
‘We don’t wish anyone else apart from him on the bench tomorrow, he doesn’t have to do the European final, but listen, every time I go into a final I never think I always think about the outcome.
‘I always think about where I come from, leaving my family behind when I was young. When I’m in the game, whatever happens, I know how tough times are in England.
‘When I was young, I missed my family. Even now, I’m a World Cup winner, and a few titles for the national team, but two things about that young kid who left Argentina to save his family from poverty.’