Patrick Viera and Graeme Souness have blasted Emiliano Martinez for his provocative World Cup celebrations.
While Argentina had the better of their 2022 World Cup final opponents, France, after penalties, Aston Villa’s goalkeeper has continued to generate reactions with his provocative World Cup celebration after the victory.
Argentina peeped France to a third World Cup trophy after winning 4-2 on penalties following a 3-3 draw after regulation and extra time.
Emiliano Martinez was Argentina’s World Cup hero during the penalty shootout. He saved a penalty and deployed mind-game antics to influence the outcome of the penalty shootout.
Emiliano Martinez has been on the spotlights after he followed up the victory with provocative and mocking celebrations directed at French and PSG forward Kylian Mbappe.
Joining his Argentina teammates to celebrate the win, the Aston Villa goalkeeper has met severe backlash from both fans and pundits, who thinks his celebration style has gone wild, slipping off modest routes.
Emiliano Martinez led a series of digs at Kylian Mbappe during the celebrations. Mbappe was Argentina’s nightmare in the final at the Lusail Stadium.
After Argentina had gone two goals up, Kylian Mbappe produced a stunner to bring France back to the game with a quick brace.
He scored from the penalty spot and beat Emiliano Martinez with a powerful volley after a brilliant one-two with Kolo Muani.
Lionel Messi put Argentina ahead again in the 108th minute, and Mbappe again rubbed shoulders with his PSG teammate by scoring a final equaliser from the penalty spot again to bag his hat-trick and bring the scoreline to a pulsating 3-3 draw, dragging the game to penalties.
After Emiliano helped Argentina win via penalties, he first made a mockery of the PSG forward, who became the first player to score a hat-trick in the World Cup final since England’s Sir Geoff Hurst in 1966.
Emiliano Martinez jokingly called for a minute’s silence for Kylian Mbappe as Argentina celebrated the win in the dressing room.
When Argentina arrived in Bueno Aires for the victory parade after the win, Emiliano Martinez was even seen waving a doll with Mbappe’s face on it while on their open-top bus.
Crystal Palace manager and former France international Patrick Viera has blasted the goalkeeper’s provocative World Cup celebrations directed at Kylian Mbappe.
Viera fumed at Martinez’s abusive comments and antics, that may likely damage the game of football.
‘When you are talking about the abuse and the comments that he received after the World Cup, I think that is damaging the game and himself,” the coach said of Martinez’s antics.
‘Some of the pictures that I saw from the Argentina goalkeeper took away a little bit from what Argentina achieved at the World Cup. I don’t think that they really needed that.
‘You can’t control sometimes people’s emotions or decisions, but that was a stupid decision from Martinez to do that.’
Former Arsenal and Premier legend Graeme Souness has also criticised how Emiliano Martinez laced his World Cup celebrations with disrespectful and bizarre celebration antics.
“I can accept those antics, to a point. But what we should be talking about more is the crude gesture he made after collecting his goalkeeper of the tournament trophy”, he said.
Emiliano Martinez is yet to return to Aston Villa after the World Cup win. It has been confirmed he will not be available in the Lions’ home clash against Liverpool at Villa Park as the Premier League resumes.
Meanwhile, his club coach Unai Emery has admitted uncontrolled expression of emotions by Martinez and has pledged to talk him to order when he returns to the team.
Argentina defeated France 4-2 on penalties to emerge champions of the 2022 World Cup, winning the trophy for the third time in its football history.
