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The controversial Arsenal incident that ended with Lionel Messi achieving lifelong ambition
ON THIS DAY: A questionable challenge during a feisty Premier League game between Brighton and Arsenal at the Amex had a profound impact on the history of football
Cast your mind back to 2014.
Argentina have just lost 1-0 to Germany in the World Cup final, leaving Lionel Messi heartbroken. At 27, that was the Barcelona icon’s best chance of winning football’s greatest prize and achieving his lifelong goal of making Argentina champions of the world.
Imagine if someone, at that exact moment in time, told you that future Brighton striker Neal Maupay would play a role in Messi eventually winning the World Cup at the grand old age of 35. You’d have shaken your head… and asked who Neal Maupay was.
But as the great Jimmy Greaves often said, it’s a funny old game. Here is the story of how an incident involving Maupay and Arsenal changed football history forever.
None of us will ever forget March 2020. That was the month countries around the world descended into lockdowns enforced by the Covid pandemic.
Three months after the pandemic started in the UK, the Premier League resumed to complete the 2019-20 campaign in front of no spectators. One of Arsenal’s first games back was against Brighton at the Amex, with Bernd Leno starting in goal for the Gunners.
Leno was Arsenal’s No.1, with Emiliano Martinez as his understudy. Martinez was into his 10th year as an Arsenal player but had played just a handful of games, spending time on loan at Oxford, Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham, Wolves, Getafe and Reading.
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As Martinez sat on the bench against Brighton, he would’ve expected Leno to finish the game. Yet Leno was forced off after suffering a serious knee injury in a collision with Maupay. Arsenal players were furious, believing the Brighton striker’s challenge was late.
Brighton went on to win that game 2-1 – with Arsenal midfielder Matteo Guendouzi grabbing Maupay by the throat and Ty from AFTV calling the Seagulls star “a disgrace” and “a cheat” in a famous rant – and Leno was ruled out for the rest of the season.
Martinez went on to play 23 games that term, including a superb performance in Arsenal’s FA Cup final victory against Chelsea. The Argentine was in tears after the Wembley game, with Gunners fans wondering if they had found their new first-choice goalkeeper.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta had other ideas and sold Martinez to Aston Villa a month later, but that allowed him to become a Premier League No.1. His impressive displays continued and that persuaded Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni to give him a chance.
Scaloni gave Martinez his senior international debut in June 2021 and the gloves for Argentina’s Copa America campaign. He repaid his international boss by winning the tournament’s Golden Glove award, as Argentina defeated Brazil 1-0 in the Copa America final.
That was Messi’s maiden trophy at senior international level, ending his long wait for success with Argentina. The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner had previously lost the 2007, 2015 and 2016 Copa America finals, as well as that 2014 World Cup final.
Messi’s gratitude to Martinez was indescribable, as the legend hugged his goalkeeper and posed for pictures with him at full-time. Yet it’s what Messi said about Martinez to his Argentina team-mates before the final that summed up his feelings towards him.
Martinez revealed all in the BBC’s ‘Messi’ documentary. He said: “We’d been 40 days away from our families, and he said something about me that I will obviously never forget.
“He said, ‘Emi saw his daughter born on FaceTime – he couldn’t even give her a cuddle – so let’s do it for him’. I had butterflies in my tummy from what he was saying. He nearly made me cry just before the game started!”
A year later, Argentina defeated Italy 3-0 in the Finalissima before the World Cup got underway in Qatar. Martinez was outstanding throughout the latter tournament and was the hero in the shootout victories against the Netherlands and France.
He also produced an incredible last-minute save against Randal Kolo Muani in the final against France to keep Argentina’s World Cup hopes alive. Martinez won the Golden Glove and was named as the best goalkeeper in the world by FIFA for his efforts in Qatar.
From reserve to living legend, Martinez has completed a remarkable journey. As Messi said in 2021: “Martinez is fundamental. When opponents come to him, he always responds. He established himself in goal and we have one of the best goalkeepers in the world.”
There’s no doubting Martinez played a crucial role in Argentina’s World Cup triumph, but would he have been named in the squad if it wasn’t for his breakthrough in June 2020?
Probably not.
