From being Under 9s manager to World Cup glory would be some story
For roberto Martinez, international football has brought a wave of nostalgia, taking him back to a childhood where his World Cup love affair began.
‘I still have my Panini stickers!’ he grins. ‘I was a nine-year- old, excited during the Spain World Cup in 1982. Stickers hook you on to it. I was a real Zaragoza fan and the Paraguayan Carlos ‘Lobo’ Diarte was my favourite player. He scored the first goal I saw live on television and I drove my parents mad until we found a Lobo sticker.
‘To manage at a World Cup would be a dream. My first coaching job was 23 years ago. I was 20 and called to do military service in Spain but another option was community work, so I ran a Sunday League Under 9 team.
‘We had a code of conduct — for the parents! I set them up a rota of taking the kids to games. Then I stopped them shouting at the kids. Parents can be positive or negative. We became one big family.’
After managing 265 matches in the Premier League for Wigan and Everton, Martinez had concerns about international management when he accepted the Belgium job in August 2016.
His first match was a 2-0 home defeat by Spain in which his players were booed off the field at halftime but Martinez saw positives.
He says: ‘ It was painful. You don’ t want that in front of your own fans. When I arrived, I didn’t know what to expect. I’d been on the other side and seen international football as something that got in the way of our seasons. I was pleasantly surprised by how much the players care.
‘The fans care. You are dealing with the hopes of millions. We have reacted well. We changed the system from 4-2-3-1 to 3-4-3, beat Cyprus 3-0 and have 16 points from six qualifying games.
‘ The harder part for me is psychological. Not winning becomes harder. It took me three weeks to come to terms with a draw against Greece and get rid of that feeling. At club level, you start again straight away.’
Martinez remains bright and engaging company. He has settled in Waterloo, around half an hour from Brussels. His Scottish wife Beth is learning French and Flemish with him, and their young daughter Luella has enrolled in a local school. He has even appeared on Belgian television answering trivia questions.
Liberated from the pain and pleasure of the Premier League, he appears refreshed. By the end at Everton, public perception appeared to have turned on a coach who achieved promotion with Swansea, lifted the FA Cup with Wigan and came within one place of Champions League qualification at Goodison Park.
Towards the end of his Everton tenure, aeroplane banners calling for his departure adorned the Merseyside skyline.
‘As managers, it’s part of the job,’ he says. ‘I keep the memories and my achievements stand. I look at Everton as the full three seasons, not the last six months.
‘We got 72 points in the first season, we were the last English team to be knocked out of Europe in my second and made two semi-finals in the domestic cups in my third.
‘We were defensively very poor in my last season. There were a lot of defensive duties we didn’t execute properly. I don’t deny we conceded too many goals. But when I arrived at Everton we had the same budget as Aston Villa and Fulham — they both went down.
‘I’m proud of Tom Davies and his breakthrough this season. We gave him his debut. As a manager, you know you won’t personally feel the most benefit when taking chances on young players, but we have a responsibility.’
As Belgium coach, Martinez has pressures of his own. His squad is frighteningly talented: Thibaut Courtois, Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen, Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne, Yannick Carrasco, romelu Lukaku.
Yet at Euro 2016, Belgium crashed out to Wales and work remains to reclaim the nation’s admiration. ‘There has been a lack of direction from previous generations,’ Martinez explains.
‘A German kid grows up knowing that a tournament means you have to get to the final. Spain were the same as Belgium until they won in 2008. In France, it was the same and that’s why Thierry Henry is so important as my assistant. He brings the experience of turning talent into success at this level. It’s a lot of undeserved pressure on the players but this is a seriously talented group and we have to see where that takes us.’
Martinez remains an innovator. He does most of his thinking very late at night and therefore eats his carbohydrates at 10.30pm. on the day of a game, he won’t eat, to ensure that the blood is in his brain rather than his stomach.
He now uses drone filming to aid tactical understanding. The footage offers a similar view to the one players grow up with on football computer games.
Martinez’s focus on information remains. He will visit every Belgian top-flight club as the federation roll out a new youth coaching formula.
‘They do some amazing things here,’ he says. ‘ Tottenham’s Mousa Dembele came through on street football, that’s how he learned to use his body up against people and roll them so wonderfully with those nutmegs. Language learning is key, too, among Belgians. romelu speaks five!’
Martinez looks inwards and outwards. Physical coach richard Evans has visited every club with a Belgian international so that each player’s individual fitness regime and recovery is imitated with the national squad.
Martinez watches at least one live game a day and travels every week to matches across Europe.
‘I have the same feeling as when I arrived as a player at Wigan in 1995 — curious and excited,’ he says.
‘International football intrigues me. How can you work with a group so little and see the effects on the pitch? It’s a challenge. From Under 9 Sunday League to a World Cup would be quite the story!’