Argentina's Emiliano Martinez branded 'most hated man' for antics at World Cup 2022

Argentina’s World Cup 2022-winning goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez has been branded as the most hated man at the recently concluded marquee football event. Shedding his thoughts on Instagram, France’s 2018 World Cup-winning player Adil Rami labeled the 30-year-old as the “most hated man” of the tournament. In another post, Adil claimed Morocco’s Yassine Bounou deserved to win the Golden Glove at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

The Frenchman also claimed that Golden Boot winner Kylian Mbappe traumatised the Argentine team during the final to the extent that the opposition celebrates beating him more than winning the prestigious World Cup goal. Martinez has remained in the headlines for firing several shots at Mbappe, following Argentina’s World Cup win on Sunday night. Martinez was seen dedicating a minute of silence for Mbappe during Argentina’s dressing room celebrations and was then seen holding a doll with Mbappe’s face during the team’s victory parade in Buenos Aires.

"The goalkeeper’s actions, I don’t think it was gamesmanship"

Meanwhile, Martinez was recently criticised by Simon Jordan, who claimed the goalkeeper used unfair means during the penalty shootout against France. Speaking to talkSport, Jordan said, “Martinez’s actions, I thought it was cheating, the holding of the ball and throwing it the other way. The goalkeeper’s actions, I don’t think it was gamesmanship, I don’t think it’s part of the game, I think it’s cheating. For a referee to allow the goalkeeper to manipulate the circumstances, to heighten the pressure, to increase it, I think was one of the shortcomings in that moment in time.”

At the same time, former English footballer Chris Sutton also slammed Martinez’s decision to throw away the ball ahead of Tchouameni’s penalty attempt. Speaking to The Mail, Sutton said, “I wasn’t overly enamoured with Martinez’s antics in the shootout”. “I didn’t like that at all but I can understand Martinez in that moment trying to win a World Cup. But he didn’t just chuck it a couple of yards away, he launched it 15, 20 yards away. I really felt for Tchouameni in that moment. That wasn’t on. It would have been interesting if Martinez had been booked for that because he got one on the next penalty,” he added.