Bono and Schubert are better than him. Will Martinez save his reputation against England?


A surprising shift compared to the 2022 World Cup

Certain moments in football put some players in the category of legends that are difficult to replicate, but the toughest challenge begins after they are created as they try to stay on top. This is how Emiliano “Depo” Martinez is experiencing the 2026 World Cup, after he entered the tournament in Argentina carrying the legacy of a world champion and the best goalkeeper of his generation, but he now finds himself in front of numbers that were not a question four years ago;

A rare confession… a broken finger

To understand the position of Martinez, it is enough to remember the last seconds of the final of the 2022 World Cup. His historic save against Randall Kolo Mwani, followed by his save from Kingsley Coman’s penalty, made the goalkeeper on loan between Europe’s mid-tier clubs one of the most famous goalkeepers in Argentina’s history.

But the scene was different at the 2026 World Cup. In the 1/8 round match with Egypt, Mustafa Shubert made ten saves, compared to only four of Martinez. It is true that the qualifying ticket went to Argentina, but the language of numbers was a different picture. While Egypt’s goalkeeper was at his busiest and most brilliant, the world champion left the game with modest numbers compared to what everyone was used to.

Martinez made no secret of it as he admitted after the Egypt game that he was not providing the help he wanted his team to provide, a rare statement from a goalkeeper known for his absolute confidence and ability to impose his presence in the biggest games.

The broken finger he suffered before the Europa League final against Aston Villa, about a month before the World Cup, may explain some of this decline, but it does not provide the full answer.

The deepest irony… the road to decline began early

The deeper irony lies in comparing two versions of the same player. At Qatar 2022, Martinez conceded eight goals throughout the tournament amid an air of absolute confidence and crucial saves at key moments.

After Qatar, on an individual level, Martinez remained the most recognized name in the world for two consecutive seasons, winning the Yashin Award for the best goalkeeper in the world in 2023 and 2024, becoming the most crowned winner in its history until then.

But in the 2025 edition came the shock. the award went to Gianluigi Donnarumma by an overwhelming margin of 486 points to just seven for Martinez, who slipped to eighth place behind names such as Yassin Bunou and Thibaut Courtois. The road was headed for relegation before the World Cup gave him a chance to respond.

 

 

The numbers are not flattering…a gradual decline

At the current North American World Cup, the Argentine goalkeeper conceded just six goals until the quarter-finals, which is mathematically a lower number than the previous World Cup, but this was not reflected in his individual presence in the matches, as the goalkeeper seemed to find his rhythm more than impose it.

Statistics confirm this impression. Martinez made only 8 saves, and the Paraguayan goalkeeper Orlando Gil topped the list with 23 saves. Until the quarter finals.

Martinez was absent from the FIFA Power Ranking of the best goalkeepers in the same period, which was approved by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), while Bono and Schubert appeared in the top five goalkeepers of the tournament.

In this ranking, Martinez ranks 22nd among World Cup goalkeepers with 5.13 points, despite having recently risen six positions at once. On the other hand, Yassin Bounu of Morocco, who was eliminated from the World Championship in the quarter-finals against France, took the fourth place with a score of 7.98 after jumping 6 places at once.

Mustafa Schubert finished fifth with 7.78 points, while Jordan Pickford, Argentina’s expected opponent in Atlanta, is directly behind the sixth-placed Egyptian goalkeeper with 7.76 points.

The picture becomes clearer when studying the entire list of this classification. Diego Costa (Portugal) leads with 8.95 points, followed by Gregor Cupil (Switzerland) with 8.24, then Orlando Gil (Paraguay) with 8.13 and Viacin Bono (Morocco) with 798 places.

Even Alisson, the Brazilian goalkeeper who was eliminated in the round of 16, is well ahead of Martinez with 5.36 points, despite only being in nineteenth place.

According to the same ranking, Martinez is ahead of only Yahya Fofana (Côte d’Ivoire), Patrick Beach (Australia) and Lionel Mbasi (DRC), who are goalkeepers from teams who were knocked out in the early stages of the tournament.

Biggest threat…England’s fearsome duo

The biggest problem facing Martinez right now isn’t limited to his drop in ratings and performance, but rather extends to the nature of the opponent himself.

England striker and captain Harry Kane scored six goals at the 2026 World Cup, becoming only the third England player to reach the mark in a single match at a major tournament, after Gary Lineker (1986) and Kane himself (2018).

As for Jude Bellingham, he scored 6 goals in the tournament, 5 of them from open play, becoming the highest scoring midfielder in a single World Cup in history and taking his tally to 7 in all his games, joining Kane (14 goals) and Lineker (10) as England’s all-time top goalscorer.

As such, the pair represent less than an intermittent individual threat, but rather two parallel lines of attack with 12 goals combined, doubling the pressure on the goalkeeper entering the clash with the lowest official ranking among goalkeepers in the semi-finals.

Does a miracle happen?

Emiliano Martinez has something that cannot be measured in numbers: personality, presence and the ability to create a moment that changes an entire tournament. But the difference between the Qatari version and the North American version is no longer just an impression, but rather documented in numbers.

The goalkeeper, who is used to being the hero of the scene in every game, this time enters the semi-finals and has to prove that the legend of 2022 has not just turned into a memory and that his best saves have become a thing of the past. Will he turn on his critics in his last breath?





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