Over the past few seasons, Wolverhampton Wanderers have had some iconic players represent the club. A few of these stars helped them win promotion back to the Premier League in 2018, including former club captain Ruben Neves, and attacker Diogo Jota, who now plies his trade at top-flight rivals Liverpool.
Players who joined the club whilst they were in the Premier League include the likes of Pedro Neto, who now plays at Chelsea, and Matheus Nunes, currently at Manchester City.
There is one former Wolves player who goes slightly under the radar, and it is not well-known that he played for the Old Gold. However, he is now regarded as one of the best in the world in his position.
Emiliano Martinez’s Wolves career
For a brief period of time back in the 2015/16 campaign, Wolves’ goalkeeper was now World Cup winner Emiliano Martinez. A player who has represented several English clubs, including one game for Oxford United, he has now finally settled at Aston Villa and is widely considered one of the best shot-stoppers in the world.
The Argentine international played 15 times for the Old Gold when they were still in the Championship. He made 13 league appearances and two in the League Cup, keeping five clean sheets in total.
Frustratingly, for the Argentine, his consistent run as the Old Gold’s number-one goalkeeper was curtailed after he was struck down by injury – albeit with the player himself admitting recently that Wolves did actually offer £10m to sign him permanently.
He returned to Arsenal that summer, and eventually left the Emirates Stadium for Villa Park, where he soon made himself a household name.
Looking back on it, the move was frustratingly brief, and Wolves may wish things had turned out differently for Martinez, given the career he has gone on to have.
Martinez’s rise to the top
It has been an astronomical rise to the top since joining the Villans from the Gunners in 2020 for £17m. He has gone from strength to strength, keeping 55 clean sheets in 165 games, and conceding 202 goals in total.
Where the Argentine really kicked on was at the 2022 World Cup. He was their number one goalkeeper throughout the tournament in Qatar, making a crucial save in the final throws of the final to stop Randall Kolo Muani from winning the World Cup for France.
The 32-year-old is a large reason why Lionel Messi has a World Cup to his incredible collection of trophies. The Villa number 23 won the Yashin Trophy, the award for the best goalkeeper on the planet, in October 2023, largely thanks to his heroics in Qatar.
Stat
Number
Games
7
Minutes
690
Goals conceded
8
Penalties saved in shootouts
4
Clean sheets
3
Yellow cards
1
The former Arsenal shot-stopper is also known for his theatrics on the pitch. He is not one to shy away from a joke or two with the crowd and lives up to that kind of theatre on the pitch.
It is for this reason that football presenter Dougie Critchley described him as “the Eric Cantona of his generation” because he is a “natural-born entertainer”. It is certainly something the goalkeeper thrives off.
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Nowadays, the 32-year-old goalkeeper is valued at a potential fee of around £50m. That is a value that Villa News reported when speaking to scout Bryan King. He suggested that the World Cup winner, along with Villa’s star striker Ollie Watkins, would “go for big money”, claiming they could land £100m for the pair combined.
Looking back on things, the Old Gold may be disappointed they missed out on any kind of permanent deal for Martinez back in 2015/16.
Whilst he struggled to make the number one spot his own after November due to injury, things could have worked out differently and one of the Premier League’s great entertainers could have been playing at Molienux every week, instead of down the road at their Midlands rivals.
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