translated from Spanish: Dibu Martínez: “When I played with Messi I became Super Saiyan”

Emiliano “Dibu” Martinez, the best goalkeeper of the 2021 Copa America, told how it felt to play for the first time with Lionel Messi in a full tournament and made a curious comparison: “Did you see when you see Dragon Ball Z when you’re a kid? I’m Vegeta, and when I played with Messi I became Super Saiyan.” You say, “He made the players excited.” Me too, and I’m an archer. I wish I had played every game in a league with him and would be a much better goalkeeper. I left 45 days with the National Team, before I had finished a great season at Villa in which I improved a lot, but with the National Team I increased by 10% or 15% what I am today”, he added in dialogue with Olé.After his confidence won by the great tournament carried out: “I achieved all the objectives: I was the one with the best percentage of tackles , I had 15 arcs in zero and I was the one of the America’s Cup. And now I’m going to set myself new goals. So far I’m not going to stop, win the World Cup and be one of the best. I’m going to the World Cup because of that.”

In this regard, he referred to the work done to get to where he is: “I’ve been doing well for five years. I haven’t been injured for seven years. I could say “I don’t play and like anything…”. No. I do yoga three times a week, pilates, personal physio, personal psychologist”, and about the bad times, he said: “I had a hard time, I wanted to go back to Argentina, I wanted to leave football, I wanted to leave my people from the age of 12”. On the selection and leadership of Lionel Scaloni, he said that “he knows more than anyone what the National Team is. Plan the matches very well, it gives you a plan in each game. He never warns who is going to play, he always has you physically at his best and makes you grow every day with the plan he has in each game. It has the group very close, that’s very difficult to do, with the young, the new and the old litter.”

And finally, in reference to the great conquest, he said: “With the boys we talked if we were aware that this, I think it will not be repeated: to be champion of the America’s Cup at the Maracana, with the trips we made … I think the match against Brazil was the best game of the National Team in a long time.” And he concluded, referring to the penalties with Colombia: “It had never been seen before, but it is something that I use not to neutralize others, but to give emotion to me, to be motivated. But then I realize that people were crazy because he had taken three penalties in five, four in six with the one in Chile. But I knew I had been playing for the National Team for six games, or seven more. I hadn’t won anything, I hadn’t gotten anything. Going to a final and being a disaster, what’s it worth? It’s worthless.” 

Original source in Spanish