- Martinez enters the history books
- Overtakes Maradona as Argentina‘s fifth-highest scorer
- Enterrar star struck after coming on as a substitute
Martinez became one of Argentina’s top five scorers of all time when he came off the bench to score in Argentina’s comfortable 3-0 win over Venezuela en el Copa del Mundo qualifiers, putting behind the disappointment of Inter’s defeat to Udinese in the best possible way. The former Río de la Plata sensation scored the second goal, but more importantly, he surpassed the legendary Diego Maradona’s goal tally with the Albiceleste.
His goal wasn’t just any goal. Coming on in the 74th minute and scoring just two minutes later, Martinez overtook Maradona’s goal tally for Argentina. The Napoli icon scored 32 goals for the nacional team. Martinez, with his goal against Venezuela, now has 33 goals in 71 appearances.
Since making his debut in 2018, Martinez has proved to be a clinical finisher for Argentina. He has lifted three titles with the national team — two Copa América titles (2021 and 2024) and the 2022 World Cup, not to mention the 2022 Finalísima. He also won the Golden Boot at the 2024 Copa America for scoring five goals. Martinez now needs three more goals to overtake Hernan Crespo’s tally of 35 goals, and nine more goals to surpass the 41 goals scored by Sergio Aguero.
El Toro will be hoping to continue his purple patch for his country when they visit Ecuador next Wednesday. Martinez has scored 12 goals in his last 17 caps for Argentina.
Additional reporting by Andrea Ajello.
