Emi Martinez hints at potential RETIREMENT date if goalkeeper achieves ambition

Emi Martinez, 32, has hinted at when he could hang up his boots depending on whether he scores one more goal in his career.

In 2019, he was an afterthought in Unai Emery's Arsenal squad and played on loan at Championship side Reading.

Just three years later, his penalty kick heroics helped Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar, earning Golden Glove honors.

This week the Aston Villa goalkeeper became the first ever two-time winner of FIFA's Men's Best Goalkeeper Award.

Despite his fairytale rise to fame, Martinez revealed it would take another World Cup winner's medal before he could call it a day, speaking to AFA Estudio.

“If I become a two-time world champion with the Argentina national team, I will retire,” said the 6-foot-4 shot-stopper.

'I promise you. I'll tell you today. After that World Cup I will retire.'

Martinez also admitted he was close to quitting international football after the 2022 World Cup finals.

“I come into the locker room and see Cuti Romero and Marito crying,” he added.

'Then I said, “No, that's it, I'm retiring from the national team. That's it, I've achieved everything.” It was my dream.

'Then I passed Paulo Dybala crying and when I hugged him I started crying like a child, thinking of what I suffered in England.'

After the 2026 World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico, Martinez would be just 33 years old.

He did not indicate whether he would retire exclusively from the national team or whether he would base it entirely on his professional career.

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