BELGIUM COACH ON VERGE OF FOOTBALL HISTORY
MOSCOW— Two wins from becoming the first foreign coach to win a World Cup, Roberto Martinez always will be known as Frankie to his former boss.
“He reminded me of those wonderful what I call zootsuited American vocalists, like Bobby Darin, Frankie Avalon, Frankie Valli,” Everton chair Bill Kenwright said. “And I christened him Frankie from the first day I met him.”
Martinez had more hair then. Now balding, the Spaniard has led Belgium to a World Cup semifinal against France on Tuesday night, three days before his 45th birthday. All 20 previous World Cup-winning coaches were born in the nation they led to the title.
“He’s a genius tactically,” said American goalkeeper Tim Howard, who spent three seasons with Martinez at Everton. “He always finds a weakness in the opponent. He prepares his teams to break down the opponent. He changes tactics every game.”
Belgium beat five-time champion Brazil 2-1 in the quarterfinals when Martinez switched to a new formation—a 4-3-3 with star forward Romelu Lukaku on the right wing. If Belgium gets past the French, The Red Devils would play England or Croatia on Sunday with the chance to win their first World Cup title.
Englishman George Raynor’s Sweden team advanced to the 1958 final at home but lost to Brazil, and Ernst Happel of Austria led the Netherlands team to the 1978 final, an extra-time defeat to host Argentina. Martinez hopes to succeed where they failed by employing a two-year process to ensure “this is a team, this is not a group of individuals.”
He grew up in the Catalonia city of Balaguer and left the youth system of his hometown club at 16 to join Zaragoza. He played for a series of small clubs.
Martinez has been married for nine years to the former Beth Thompson—they met when he was playing in Scotland and they have a 4 1/2-yearold daughter Luella. Coaching families always have to be prepared to move. Before the quarterfinal, Martinez was asked at a news conference whether he was interested in coaching Spain. He deflected.