Argentina Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez Triggers Football War

They say he is a character. Would that mean anything he does is to be seen as a joke and the villain forgiven? Emiliano Marinez, the Argentine goalkeeper who saved a penalty and distracted another French shot taker into kicking it wide, is busy stirring up things back home after the World Cup win. He has incensed France by mocking Kylian Mbappe repeatedly. He asked for a minute’s silence in honour of Mbappe in the dressing room soon after Argentina won the cup – “A minute’s silence for Kylian Mbappe, who is dead” he said. Worse, he took a doll with a photograph of the French striker stuck on its face. At one point, he was filmed rubbing the doll on his genitalia as Argentina players took their open top bus ride in Buenos Aires. He had made the same gesture when he rubbed the golden Glove trophy after the final and seems to have gotten away with it. There hasn’t been a pip out of FIFA on this flagrant obscene act that was carried live to a couple of billion people. Incidentally, he is mocking a player who scored a hat-trick in the final and slotted the first goal in the penalty shootout. His tactics as goalkeeper in the shootout should also be analysed but FIFA, drunk with the success of the World Cup, is keeping mum.