Emiliano Martínez and Aston Villa: A Journey to European Glory
Emiliano Martínez stands on the brink of a European final believing, more than ever, that he chose correctly when he stayed put at Aston Villa.
Twelve months ago, the World Cup winner was in tears on the Villa Park pitch, waving to supporters after the final game of the 2024-25 season against Tottenham. It looked and felt like a farewell. The kind of emotional goodbye that usually ends with a private jet, a new league, and a carefully staged unveiling somewhere else.
He never left.
Now, the 33-year-old walks into Istanbul one match away from becoming a European champion with the club he almost said goodbye to for good. Villa face Freiburg on Wednesday, chasing their first major trophy in 30 years. For Martínez, the timing could hardly be more poetic.
“I will always and forever love this club”
Martínez arrived at Villa in September 2020, a goalkeeper looking for a permanent home after years of loans and uncertainty. What he found was a platform. What the club found was a personality and presence that matched its ambition.
He has made that bond clear.
“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 direct line between the life he left behind and the one he built in Birmingham.
Football moves quickly. Managers change. Squads turn over. Martínez knows it as well as anyone.
“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.”
There is no ambiguity in that. For all the speculation that swirled around him after Qatar and again last year, he has nailed his colours to the claret and blue mast.
Emery, belief and a European stage
The presence of Unai Emery has sharpened that conviction. Martínez did not hide what the head coach means to this group.
“We have a top coach – 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.”
That is the core of Villa’s current identity: a coach with a European pedigree, a goalkeeper with a World Cup medal, and a squad that has learned to embrace pressure rather than shrink from it.
No one thrives on that tension quite like Martínez when the game goes to the limit.
A goalkeeper who loves the shoot-out
Most goalkeepers dread penalties. Martínez leans into them.
“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.
He would still rather avoid them on Wednesday.
“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 bravado and preparation has defined him since he became a household name on the biggest international stage. Now he wants to bring that same edge to a Villa side trying to etch its name back into European history.
McGinn’s proudest night
If Martínez represents Villa’s new stature, John McGinn represents its journey.
The captain joined in 2018, when the club were scrapping to get out of the Championship, not lining up finals in Istanbul. He helped drag them back to the Premier League, then helped push them into Europe. This season, the 31-year-old has underlined his importance with 10 goals in all competitions.
Asked if leading Villa out in a European final will be the proudest moment of his career, McGinn 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.”
Those words strip away any sense that Villa are just happy to be invited. This is not a sightseeing trip. It is a chance to change the club’s modern story.
From Martínez’s near-farewell to McGinn’s climb from the Championship, Villa arrive in Istanbul with scars, belief, and a clear target. One game, one trophy, and the opportunity to turn a long, emotional journey into something permanent in the record books.
