Ten years passed.
Adrián
Martínez,
the striker who shone in the Cilindro de Avellaneda with three goals for Racing's victory against San Lorenzo, had not yet been nicknamed Maravilla by the former world boxing champion Sergio Martínez and football was far from becoming his medium of life.
Far away:
he worked as a garbage collector.
However, everything changed for him when a car accident left his hand (and his life in general) severely compromised: several blood vessels were cut and he lost his job when he had a family to support.
To make matters worse, in a confusing episode he was imprisoned in Penitentiary Unit No. 21 in Campana.
“My brother was shot four times and the people of the neighborhood set fire to the attackers' house.
For that fact they put me and other family members in prison.
We were locked up for six months until they decided to release me from guilt and charge,” he had told
Clarín
in 2016.
The twists of fate are indecipherable and weeks after being released a friend of his suggested that he take a test at
Defensores Unidos.
It was the beginning of 2015.
"Maravilla" has three goals in Racing, all together against San Lorenzo.
Photo: Juano Tesone / Clarín.
“I scored goals in a couple of friendlies against teams from the Primera B Metropolitana and C and I stayed.
Since the club was not going to pay me a salary, only travel expenses, my friend gave me a hand financially,” he said.
It was worth it.
With the Zarate team's shirt he scored 34 goals in 73 games and put himself on the radar of important Ascenso clubs that usually compete for those footballers to whom goals come naturally.
At that moment he made the jump to Primera B with the
Atlanta
shirt .
But Paraguay was the destination in which he definitively catapulted his career, with steps through
Sol de América, Libertad
and
Cerro Porteño.
Then he played in Brazil (he was on loan in
Curitiba
) and the gunpowder seemed to have gotten wet there, but he regained his firepower at Instituto.
He was one of the figures in the promotion of the Córdoba team to First Division.
And at the beginning of 2024 he took the big leap: he signed with Racing until December 2026.
Carlos Tévez wanted it for Independiente, but Martínez chose the light blue and white side of Avellaneda to reinforce the meaning of the word resilience and join the project of Gustavo Costas, the new coach.
And he has already started to pay with goals.
"Maravilla"'s goals against San Lorenzo
THE FIRST OF THE NIGHT: error by Roca Sánchez that Maravilla Martínez took advantage of to open the victory in Avellaneda.
pic.twitter.com/VypIjl1aQZ
— SportsCenter (@SC_ESPN) February 10, 2024
BEFORE HALFTIME THE SECOND ARRIVED!
Perfect center from Solari for Maravilla Martínez to anticipate and score the partial 2-0 for the Academy.
pic.twitter.com/rtPLmF1jnu
— SportsCenter (@SC_ESPN) February 10, 2024
WHAT A WONDERFUL NIGHT!
Adrián Martínez sealed his Hat-Trick against San Lorenzo in the #CopaDeLaLiga.
pic.twitter.com/lHVr0qGOZe
— SportsCenter (@SC_ESPN) February 10, 2024
The match summary