For the first time in the history of football-crazy Kolkata, a reigning FIFA World Cup winner is about to visit the city. Emiliano “Dibu” Martinez, one of the heroes of Argentina’s World Cup triumph in Qatar last December, will be in Kolkata between July 3 and 6, as part of the latest endeavour of A Satadru Dutta Initiative to make Kolkata’s football lovers jump in joy.
Masterminding Martinez’s trip to Kolkata is Satadru Dutta, a sports promoter and business consultant, who founded the organisation named after him in 2011. Till date, Dutta has brought the likes of Pele, Diego Maradona and Cafu, among other iconic footballers, to Kolkata on a series of elaborately planned visits. With Martinez, however, Dutta is attempting a first: “He’s an active player who is fresh off winning the World Cup, where he proved himself to be a match winner, not just with his saves but also with his mind games and showmanship.”
As per a packed itinerary, Martinez, currently plying his trade for Aston Villa in England, will land in Kolkata on the evening of July 3, following a meet-and-greet (in association with FundedNext and NEXT Ventures) in Dhaka in the morning. Martinez will be staying at ITC Royal Bengal, off the EM Bypass, for the entirety of his Kolkata visit.
The marquee event with Martinez will take place on July 4 at Biswa Bangla Mela Prangan (formerly known as Milan Mela), where the Argentine goalkeeper will be in conversation with Dutta as part of “Tahader Kotha” (Their Words). Close to 5,000 people are expected to be in attendance, including 500 school students from city-based institutions such as St. Augustine’s Day School (tickets can be purchased here). “Martinez will share his memories from the World Cup, which will get a lot of people hooked,” said Dutta, who has arranged for 1,000 free passes to be distributed among kids participating in football coaching camps across Bengal.
At the event, Martinez is supposed to get his first dose of a “food-ball derby”, as he will be tasked with the timeless Bengali dilemma of choosing between ilish and chingri! Martinez will also be felicitating 10 former goalkeepers from Bengal, including the likes of Bhaskar Ganguly and Hemanta Dora, which is Dutta’s way of “paying tribute to those who have made Bengal proud”.
Martinez will interact with a lot of young footballers during his stay in Kolkata Getty Images
On the evening of July 4, Martinez will be at the Mohun Bagan Ground to witness a match between the Mohun Bagan All Stars and the Kolkata Police All Stars. A day later, on July 5, Dutta will take Martinez to Lake Town, where the 30-year-old will be encouraging the finalists of ‘Paanch e Paanch’, a football penalty competition pioneered by Dutta that has unfolded in recent weeks across nine districts of Bengal. The champions of the tournament will receive the trophy from Martinez, before he heads off to Santosh Mitra Square to “deliver a football clinic for youngsters”.
Dutta and Martinez will make their next pit stop at the former’s native city of Rishra in Hooghly, where local politicians will felicitate Martinez during a short meet-and-greet. Martinez will unveil a cheque as part of a commemoration fund for one of Dutta’s close friends who is no more.
A farewell dinner at ITC Royal on Wednesday night will wrap up Martinez’s Kolkata adventure, with the Argentine scheduled to fly out of the city in the early hours of July 6.
“I wanted to get him to Kolkata the moment I saw his heroics at the World Cup,” said Dutta, who has been in constant touch with Martinez’s “extremely professional team” for the past four to five months. Earlier this year, Dutta went to the UK to put the seal on Martinez coming to Kolkata, meeting the player and his “wonderful family” at Villa Park, shortly after Martinez had steered his club to another Premier League victory.
“It’s definitely a challenge to get someone of Martinez’s calibre to Kolkata. So, I’ll regard it as one of my milestones. Of course, nothing compares to bringing Pele and Maradona, unless I’m able to get [Lionel] Messi or [Cristiano] Ronaldo, but Martinez is a huge star in his own right. The way he carries himself and his team is admirable. My message through Emi’s visit is to let this generation of Kolkatans believe in football and get inspired by Martinez,” said Dutta.
10 things to know about Emi Martinez
Lionel Messi and Martinez pose with the Golden Ball and the Golden Glove, respectively, during the presentation ceremony of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Getty Images
- Martinez was the winner of the Golden Glove (for best goalkeeper) at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, where he was instrumental in Argentina’s penalty shootout victories over France (in the final) and the Netherlands (in the quarter-final)
- In February, Martinez was named as The Best FIFA Goalkeeper (for 2022), the first time an Argentine has won that particular accolade
- Martinez’s breakthrough moment on the international stage came during the Copa America of 2021 in Brazil, where he was a valuable member of the squad that broke Argentina’s 28-year wait for a men’s senior trophy
- Martinez’s goalkeeping antics first came to the fore during Argentina’s penalty shootout triumph against Colombia in the semi-final of the Copa America. Even Lionel Messi was impressed, calling Martinez a “phenomenon” after the match
- Martinez is currently under contract at Aston Villa, whom he joined in September 2020. In two-and-a-half-years at the club, Martinez has already broken Villa’s record for most Premier League clean sheets in a single season
- Prior to his move to Villa, Martinez spent 10 years at Arsenal, where he won the FA Cup and the FA Community Shield in 2020
- Martinez’s Arsenal stint was littered with loan spells at six different clubs — Oxford United, Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Reading in England as well as Getafe in Spain
- Born in the Argentine city of Mar del Plata (part of the Buenos Aires province), Martinez’s first professional club was Club Atletico Independiente in Argentina, from where Arsenal signed him in 2010
- Martinez is nicknamed “Dibu” (abbreviation of dibujo, Spanish for “drawing”) after an animated character in an Argentine telenovela
- Martinez was in the stands as a fan to watch Argentina play and get knocked out in Russia at the 2018 World Cup. Following that heartbreaking experience, he had vowed to his brother to be on the pitch at the next World Cup. Not only did Martinez fulfil his promise, but he went one better, helping Argentina become world champions for the first time since 1986