Aston Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez wants to create the ‘Dibu Club’ back in his hometown to help disadvantaged children and adolescents get a better start in life.
The World Cup winner is on a mission to continue giving back to Argentina. Earlier this week he auctioned off the gloves he wore in the final to raise £37,000 for the oncology ward at the Garrahan Hospital in Buenos Aires and now he is focusing on a project run by Causa Ninez, a social organisation in the area of Mar del Plata where he was raised.
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The Aston Villa stopper, nicknamed Dibu, has made it clear that he wants to help revive a project that has required funding for years.
He has already offered support and is now encouraging donations via a raffle on his social media channels where the winner will get to attend Villa’s game against Brighton on May 28 as his special guest. A barbecue with the 30-year-old is also included.
With the proceeds, Martinez hopes progress will be made to start operating a fully-functional club for youngsters where they can eat healthy food, learn to speak English, and also socialise in a safe area. There are wider plans to promote sport, art, music and other education, too, and Martinez, on the back of the best year of his career, is willing to help.
The former Arsenal goalkeeper grew up in the city on the Atlantic coast south of Buenos Aires in a house without any doors or a toilet because his parents could not afford them.
There would often be very little food to eat at home; for some time it was white rice only and even that could not be shared around sufficiently to feed the whole family.
From a young age, Martinez would have to walk to school alone because his mother Susana would be out cleaning apartments and his father Alberto, a truck driver, delivered fish sometimes for up to 20 hours a day.
When he left to join Independiente in the capital Buenos Aires at the age of 12, his parents could not visit regularly because money was tight and petrol was not seen as a daily essential.
He was not fully sold on moving to England with Arsenal as a 17-year-old in 2010 — he felt it was too soon — but knew the money he would make would help support his family. The signing-on fee alone was big enough to buy his father a car.
Moving to Aston Villa changed his career and gave him the uplift that he needed. He was heroic in Argentina’s penalty shoot-out win over France and last month he was named goalkeeper of the year at FIFA’s The Best Awards.
GO DEEPER
Emi Martinez: 'When I hear our anthem, there might be tears. We go there to win'
(Photo: Getty Images)
