Emiliano ‘Dibu’ Martínez

Damián Emiliano Martínez Romero (born September 2, 1992, in Mar del Plata, Argentina) is the goalkeeper who turned the penalty shootout into a personal fiefdom. Known to an entire country as “Dibu,” the Aston Villa and Argentina number one is a 6 ft 5 in shot-stopper whose reputation rests on two things that rarely coexist: genuinely elite saves in the biggest moments, and a brand of psychological warfare on the goal line that opponents despise and Argentines adore. He waited until he was 28 for his international debut. Within eighteen months of it, he had won the Copa América, the World Cup, and the Golden Glove at both.

The résumé since has kept compounding. Martínez claimed a second Copa América in 2024, became the first goalkeeper to win the Yashin Trophy twice (2023 and 2024), and took The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper award in both 2022 and 2024. In May 2026 he added the trophy his club had chased for a generation: Aston Villa’s 3–0 Europa League final win over Freiburg in Istanbul, a match Martínez started and finished with a clean sheet despite breaking a finger in the warm-up. That victory extended a statistic that borders on absurd. Across Arsenal, Argentina, and Villa, Martínez has now won every one of the seven major finals he has played over the past six years.

The story is not finished, and it is not tidy. Martínez arrives at the business end of the 2026 World Cup as the defending champion goalkeeper of an Argentina side that has ground its way to a semifinal against England, while openly telling reporters that he has not yet reached his own standard at this tournament. He set himself a target of conceding four or five goals across the whole competition; six games in, he has already let in six. Whether the defining Dibu moment of this World Cup is still coming is, as of this writing, the most interesting open question in the tournament.

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Quick Facts

Featured Video

Video courtesy of Aston Villa Football Club on YouTube.

Early Life & Education

Martínez grew up in Mar del Plata, a port city on Argentina’s Atlantic coast, in a family where money was tight and football was the plausible way out. He has spoken often about the sacrifices his parents made to keep him in the game, and about his own: as a young teenager he left home for Buenos Aires to join the youth academy at Independiente, one of Argentina’s historic clubs, trading his childhood for a bunk and a dream several hundred kilometers away. It was at Independiente that the nickname arrived. Goalkeeping coach and club legend Miguel Ángel Santoro decided the kid looked like the animated boy from the popular Argentine telenovela “Mi familia es un dibujo,” and “Dibu” stuck for life.

Even his legal name carries a story about that upbringing. His mother intended to register him as Emiliano Damián, the second name honoring a grandfather who died before he was born, but after hours in a post-office queue the clerk wrote the names in the wrong order. Rather than wait hours more to fix it, she let it stand. Argentina’s most famous goalkeeper is legally Damián Emiliano, and answers to neither.

The formal education that mattered came in England. Shortly after his 17th birthday, Arsenal invited him to trial, and in July 2010 he was registered as an Arsenal player. What followed was a decade-long apprenticeship most players would not have survived: six loan spells across three countries and four divisions, from an emergency League Two debut at Oxford United in 2012 through Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham, Wolves, Getafe in La Liga, and Reading. He was 27 before he ever held a Premier League starting job for more than a few weeks. The patience, and the stubbornness, became the foundation of everything that came after.

Career Highlights and Milestones

The door finally opened in June 2020, when an injury to Bernd Leno pushed Martínez into Arsenal’s goal for the pandemic-era run-in. He seized it completely, starting and starring in the 2020 FA Cup final win over Chelsea (he was in tears lifting the trophy) and then backstopping a penalty-shootout Community Shield win over Liverpool. When Arsenal made clear Leno would return as first choice, Martínez forced the issue, and in September 2020 Aston Villa paid up to £20 million for a 28-year-old with 38 career appearances for his parent club. It is one of the great value transfers of the modern Premier League. In his first Villa season he equaled Brad Friedel’s club record of 15 Premier League clean sheets and was voted the Supporters’ Player of the Season.

Then came the eighteen months that rewrote his life. Handed his Argentina debut at 28 in June 2021, Martínez saved three penalties in the Copa América semifinal shootout against Colombia, kept a clean sheet in the final against Brazil at the Maracanã, and won the tournament’s Golden Glove as Argentina ended a 28-year major-trophy drought. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar he authored the two moments every Argentine can replay from memory: the sprawling last-minute save on Randal Kolo Muani in extra time of the final against France, and the shootout that followed, where his saves and his theatrics broke the French takers. He won the World Cup Golden Glove, The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper award, and a permanent place in his country’s sporting mythology. The numbers behind the aura are real: across his first five career shootouts for club and country, opponents converted just 12 of 23 kicks, roughly 52 percent against a norm of 70 to 80.

The years since have been a study in extremes. He retained his crown as the world’s best on paper (Yashin Trophies in 2023 and 2024, a second Copa América and Golden Glove in 2024, a second FIFA Best award in 2024, and selection to The Best FIFA Men’s 11 in 2025) while attracting the sharpest criticism of his career on the pitch. FIFA banned him for two matches in September 2024 for a lewd trophy celebration and for striking a camera operator’s equipment after a qualifier defeat in Colombia. In the 2024–25 Premier League season he conceded 45 goals, ranked near the bottom of the league’s goalkeepers on goals allowed versus expected, and was sent off on the final day for a wild challenge on Manchester United’s Rasmus Højlund. In November 2025, Unai Emery stripped him of the Villa vice-captaincy amid reporting that Martínez had pushed for a move the previous summer that never materialized. BBC Sport’s chief football writer called him flatly overrated. Martínez has never much cared what neutral observers think.

His answer arrived in Istanbul on May 20, 2026. Villa reached the Europa League final against Freiburg, and during the warm-up Martínez broke a finger. He had it taped, played all 90 minutes, made two saves, kept a clean sheet in a 3–0 win, and lifted the club’s first major trophy in 30 years and first European trophy since 1982. He then refused surgery so he could defend Argentina’s World Cup title a month later. That defense is live as this profile is written: Argentina have beaten Algeria, Austria, Jordan, Cape Verde, Egypt, and Switzerland to reach a semifinal against England on July 15, 2026, with Martínez publicly frustrated that his signature moment has not yet arrived and openly promising it is coming.

Selected Career Highlights

• 2012: Makes his senior debut on an emergency loan at Oxford United in League Two, then debuts for Arsenal in the League Cup; two years later he earns UEFA Team of the Week honors for a clean sheet against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League
• 2012–2019: Completes six loan spells (Oxford, Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham, Wolves, Getafe, Reading) while waiting for a first-team chance at Arsenal
• 2020: Starts and wins the FA Cup final against Chelsea and the penalty-shootout Community Shield against Liverpool for Arsenal
• 2020: Joins Aston Villa for up to £20 million and saves a penalty on his debut against Sheffield United
• 2020–21: Equals Villa’s club record with 15 Premier League clean sheets in his first season; voted Supporters’ Player of the Season
• 2021: Makes his Argentina debut at 28, saves three penalties in the Copa América semifinal shootout against Colombia, and wins the title plus the Golden Glove
• 2022: Keeps a clean sheet as Argentina beat Italy 3–0 in the Finalissima at Wembley
• 2022: Wins the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, producing the last-minute extra-time save on Randal Kolo Muani and decisive shootout stops in the final; wins the tournament Golden Glove
• 2023: Breaks the Villa record for clean sheets in a goalkeeper’s first 100 Premier League games (34)
• 2024: Saves two penalties in the Copa América quarterfinal shootout against Ecuador, wins a second Copa América and second Golden Glove
• 2023–2024: Becomes the first goalkeeper to win the Yashin Trophy in consecutive years
• December 2024: Produces a behind-the-back goal-line save against Nottingham Forest later voted the Premier League’s Save of the Season for 2024–25
• January 2026: Sets Villa’s all-time Premier League record for away clean sheets (28)
• May 20, 2026: Breaks a finger in the warm-up, plays anyway, and keeps a clean sheet as Villa beat Freiburg 3–0 to win the Europa League, the club’s first European trophy in 44 years
• July 2026: Starts every match of Argentina’s run to the 2026 World Cup semifinal as the defending champions

Major Recognition

• FIFA World Cup champion (2022)
• Copa América champion (2021, 2024)
• CONMEBOL–UEFA Finalissima winner (2022)
• UEFA Europa League winner with Aston Villa (2025–26)
• FA Cup winner with Arsenal (2019–20)
• FIFA World Cup Golden Glove (2022)
• Copa América Golden Glove (2021, 2024) and Team of the Tournament (2021, 2024)
• The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper (2022, 2024), the only two-time winner
• Yashin Trophy (2023, 2024), the first back-to-back winner
• The Best FIFA Men’s 11 (2025)
• IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper and IFFHS Men’s World Team (2024)
• Olimpia de Oro, Argentina’s athlete of the year, shared with Franco Colapinto (2024)
• Footballer of the Year of Argentina (2024)
• Premier League Save of the Month (December 2024) and Save of the Season (2024–25)
• Aston Villa Supporters’ Player of the Season (2020–21)

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Awards and Accolades

Career Stats & Records

Apps = Appearances (all club competitions for the listed season). Selected seasons shown; career totals exceed 350 senior club appearances across Arsenal, six loan clubs, and Aston Villa. Asterisk (*) marks a club record: his 15 clean sheets in 2020–21 equaled Villa’s Premier League single-season record. Double asterisk (**): the 2025–26 figure is Premier League appearances only (he missed the final league match with the broken finger); the all-competition total for 2025–26, including the Europa League run, should be confirmed from a compiled source before publication.

Club & National Team History

Club Career

National Team Career

Caps shown as 63+ (57 through the end of 2025 per compiled records, plus six matches at the 2026 World Cup; excludes any 2026 friendlies pending confirmation). He also represented Argentina at U17 and U20 level between 2009 and 2011.

Net Worth, Income, & Lifestyle

Social Media & Online Presence

NOTE: In addition to any official accounts listed above, many fan-run pages, clip accounts, highlight compilations, and statistical tracker accounts exist across Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, and Reddit dedicated to Martínez’s penalty saves, his Villa performances, and his Argentina career. These are not confirmed to be affiliated with Emiliano Martínez. Links and usernames can change at any time.

Trivia & Lesser-Known Facts

• The nickname “Dibu” has nothing to do with goalkeeping. Independiente’s goalkeeping coach, club legend Miguel Ángel Santoro, thought the young Martínez resembled the animated boy in the Argentine telenovela “Mi familia es un dibujo,” and the name never left him.
• He is legally Damián Emiliano rather than Emiliano Damián because of a post-office mix-up: his mother, after hours in a queue to register his birth, declined to wait hours more to correct the clerk’s name-order error. The middle name honors a grandfather who died before he was born.
• He commemorated the 2022 World Cup with new tattoo work after the final, including a piece marking the last-ditch save on Randal Kolo Muani, the moment he later downplayed by insisting he has “saved much better balls than that.”
• When he returned to Mar del Plata after the 2022 World Cup, local press estimated more than 150,000 people turned out to welcome him home.
• He gave up the goalkeeper’s traditional number 1 shirt at Villa before the 2024–25 season, switching to the 23 he wears for Argentina, a superstition tied to his trophy-winning campaigns.
• He published an autobiography-style book in Argentina, “Dibu Martínez: Pasión por el fútbol,” recounting his path from Mar del Plata to the World Cup.

Quotes

“Winning individual titles or with my club is like the cherry on top, but the entire dessert of my career has always been playing with the Argentine National Team. When I play with the National Team, I feel like the ball doesn’t go in. I have the whole country and my family behind me.”

– Emiliano Martínez, AFA brand event via video call (December 2025), via OneFootball

“Today I broke my finger during warmups, but I didn’t see it as a bad thing. I’ve never broken a finger before and every time I tried to catch the ball, the finger would just slip away in the other direction. But these are just things you have to go through.”

– Emiliano Martínez, ESPN, after the Europa League final (May 2026)

“With my goalkeeping coach, we’re cold when it comes to analyzing, and we both agree that I didn’t have my best World Cup. They scored eight against me. I want to bring it down to five or four at most.”

– Emiliano Martínez, on Qatar 2022 and his target for 2026, DSports interview (December 2025)

“I just can’t believe it, mate. We lost the first game. All of a sudden it’s everything upside down. People doubting us… Everyone wanted us to lose, so it’s us against the rest of the world.”

– Emiliano Martínez, beIN Sports, after the 2022 World Cup semifinal win over Croatia (December 2022)

“I already saved the penalties that I had to save.”

– Emiliano Martínez, responding to talk of rule changes targeting goalkeeper gamesmanship (February 2023), via Mint

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: How old is Emiliano “Dibu” Martínez?
A: He is 33, born September 2, 1992, in Mar del Plata, Argentina. He turns 34 in September 2026.

Q: What team does Dibu Martínez play for?
A: He plays for Aston Villa in the Premier League, where he is under contract until 2029, and is the first-choice goalkeeper for Argentina.

Q: How tall is Emiliano Martínez?
A: 6 ft 5 in (195 cm).

Q: What is Dibu Martínez most famous for?
A: Winning the 2022 World Cup with Argentina, where he made a last-minute extra-time save on Randal Kolo Muani in the final, dominated the shootout, and won the Golden Glove. He is widely considered the best penalty-shootout goalkeeper of his generation.

Q: How many penalties has Martínez saved in shootouts?
A: Across his first five career shootouts for Argentina and Aston Villa (through July 2024), he saved ten kicks, and opponents converted only 12 of 23 attempts, roughly 52 percent against a typical shootout conversion rate of 70 to 80 percent.

Q: What are Dibu Martínez’s official social media accounts?
A: Instagram @emi_martinez26 and X (Twitter) @emimartinezz1. He has no confirmed official TikTok or personal YouTube channel.

Q: What endorsement deals does Emiliano Martínez have?
A: His anchor deal is with adidas, covering gloves and boots. Various Argentine-market partnerships, including Gillette and Mostaza, have been reported over the years, though the current full roster is not publicly documented.

Upcoming Projects / Season Outlook

• 2026 FIFA World Cup semifinal (July 15, 2026): Argentina face England for a place in the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium. Martínez has started every match of the title defense; the result was pending at the time of writing.
• 2026–27 season with Aston Villa (from August 2026): Villa finished fourth in the 2025–26 Premier League and won the Europa League, so Martínez is scheduled to return to Champions League football; Villa’s league campaign is expected to open away to Brighton on August 23, 2026, subject to scheduling confirmation.
• Contract status (summer 2026): He is under contract at Villa until 2029, though reported interest from clubs including Juventus surfaced during the summer 2026 window before reportedly cooling over Villa’s valuation; his club future should be treated as unsettled until the window closes.
• Recovery management (post-tournament): He declined surgery on the finger broken in the Europa League final in order to play the World Cup; any postponed procedure or extended recovery period after the tournament has not been announced and remains subject to medical decisions.
• Off-field projects (ongoing): No new confirmed media or book projects have been announced; his existing Spanish-language book remains in circulation in Argentina.

Interviews & Features

• The Athletic, “Why Argentina’s Emi Martinez is so good at saving penalties” (December 12, 2022), former goalkeeper Matt Pyzdrowski’s technical and psychological breakdown of the most disruptive penalty-facing routine in the sport, published days before the World Cup final.
• The Athletic, “Emiliano Martinez: Hated by opponents, loved by Argentina, endlessly entertaining” (July 3, 2024), Felipe Cardenas on the duality of Dibu, written mid-Copa América as he closed in on a second title.
• The Guardian, “Emiliano Martínez: shootouts, controversy and World Cup success” (December 19, 2022), a post-final accounting of both the brilliance and the antics that made him the tournament’s most polarizing champion.
• ESPN, “Aston Villa’s Emi Martínez broke finger before UEL final win” (May 20, 2026), his own account, minutes after the Istanbul final, of playing 90 minutes of a European final with a finger that “would just slip away in the other direction.”
• Sky Sports, “Aston Villa win Europa League: Inside Unai Emery’s latest European triumph” (May 21, 2026), the inside story of Istanbul, including the detail that Martínez has now won all seven major finals he has played across Arsenal, Argentina, and Villa.

Public Appearances, Games, & Events

• Istanbul, Turkey (May 20, 2026): Started the UEFA Europa League final at Beşiktaş Park despite breaking a finger in the warm-up, keeping a clean sheet in Villa’s 3–0 win over Freiburg and hoisting manager Unai Emery onto his shoulders in the celebrations.
• Miami Gardens, Florida (July 3, 2026): Started Argentina’s round-of-32 escape against World Cup debutants Cape Verde at Hard Rock Stadium, a 3–2 extra-time win that included one of the goals of the tournament scored past him.
• Atlanta, Georgia (July 7, 2026): In goal as Argentina came back from two goals down to beat Egypt 3–2 in the round of 16, a night he called one of the toughest of his international career.
• Kansas City (July 11, 2026): Stopped the team in the stadium tunnel before the quarterfinal against Switzerland to deliver an impassioned “play with the heart” speech, then backstopped a 3–1 extra-time win to reach the semifinals.
• Paris, France (October 2024): Received his second consecutive Yashin Trophy at the Ballon d’Or ceremony at the Théâtre du Châtelet, becoming the first goalkeeper to retain the award.