The most important stop in the history of Argentine football It was performed by Emiliano ‘Dibu’ Martínez against Kolo Muani at the Lusail stadium during the final between Argentina and France. It was minute 122:40 and the Argentine took a miraculous step to avoid the Albiceleste defeat in Qatar and, With that stop, ‘Dibu’ became a hero.
The man from Mar del Plata was asked many times about that stop and many times he told things, but in the last conversation talking about this situation with the former goalkeeper from Bristol, Wrexham, Watford, Briminghan, West Bromwich or Manchester United, Ben Fosterhe repeated the explanation again and gave more details about everything he thought at that moment.
“If you cross the shot, you may miss. It was very cornered, I took it to that side. If crossed it may fail. I know where the goal is perfectly, I see the penalty spot and I know that the left side is quite free“explains the Argentine, who in a fraction of a second had to decide what to do.
And he continued: “At that moment I didn’t think it was so spectacular, so important. I hadn’t realized it, I realized it after the game.” Furthermore, Ben Foster explained the most important thing about all this: “The look, the look. You have to keep your gaze forward and your eyes open.. The natural reaction of human beings is to close their eyes and turn their head. Look at him, he keeps his head forward.” And Dibu finishes: “Yes, please, hit me in the face.”
Workouts like a video game
Emiliano Martínez explained one of the ways he had to train and improve. During an injury, he worked with the physiotherapist with medicine balls and Dibu saw their use for something else: “I started to put three crossed pikes at eight meters and a medicine ball in half.or, so he couldn’t see the ball. Then, six meters away. Then, four meters aways. At first, it was all goal, goal, goal. Then I started stopping and catching the ball. It’s like a video game and you have to go to the next level“.
The moment he almost retired
Dibu also had time to tell how Emery’s arrival almost made him retire: “I wanted to go home. Wenger told me he was going to be number one. He just waits. Yes, Wenger, the legend, sits me down and tells me that I am going to be number one. He signed me a contract as a substitute but he was the third goalkeeper. When he left, I was 23-24 years old, I left Getafe where I didn’t play and Emery arrived and told me ‘I’m sorry friend, you played for Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham United…”, teams that I had not even heard of. This killed me.” Now with Emery he is a starter at Aston Villa and together they will play in the Champions League.
