Argentina will do battle with France for the 2022 World Cup title but one of the players involved began his career in much less glamourous surroundings.
Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez’s shootout saves helped Argentina to a quarter-final win over the Netherlands. However, the goalkeeper started his professional career with an appearance at Vale Park back in 2012.
Born in Mar del Plata, Martínez moved to Arsenal shortly after his 17th birthday and two years later secured an emergency loan move to Oxford United after an injury to their regular stopped Wayne Brown.
However, on the 5th May 2012, in front of 5,621 supporters in Burslem the teenager was unable to prevent a comprehensive Port Vale win, thanks to goals from Marc Richards, Sean Rigg and Ben Williamson.
For the record, the two teams that day were:
Port Vale: Tomlinson, Yates (McDonald), McCombe, Davis, Griffith, Loft, Rigg (Lloyd), Shuker, Dodds, Richards, Pope (Williamson)
Oxford Utd: Martinez, Batt, Duberry, Wright, Whing (Rendell), Capaldi, Davis (Johnson), Pittman, Hall, Leven, Craddock (Chapman)
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