Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez has been nominated for the 2021 Yachine Trophy.
The presitigious award is a ‘goalkeeper-specific accompaniment to the Ballon D’Or’.
Martinez is one of ten nominees for the award, with fellow Premier League stars Ederson, Edouard Mendy and Kasper Schmeichel also getting a nod.
Euro 2020 Player of the Tournament Gianluigi Donnarumma and Jan Oblak, a La Liga winner with Atletico Madrid, feature on the list too.
Recapping Martinez’s year
Villa paid £17million to sign Martinez from Arsenal back in September 2020 but according to Transfermarkt, he’s now worth nearly double that amount.
Martinez kept 15 clean sheets in his debut campaign at Villa Park and while Ederson (19) and Mendy (16) bettered that tally, they had top-four defences in front of them.
Indeed, according to data from FBRef, Martinez ‘prevented’ 7.4 goals over the course of the campaign, comfortably more than Ederson (2.2) and Mendy (0.1).
The official Villa Twitter account relayed the news of the nomination, and here’s what supporters made of it, with one fan calling the news ‘mad’.
Villa fans erupt after Martinez listed among world’s best
“This man is a legend”
Credit: @ClaretVillans
“Unreal keeper… one of the best in the world”
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“Best GK in the prem confirmed!!”
Credit: @jakewormall74
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Credit: @MASSIVEclub1874
“So incredible, proud of him”
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“Nahhhhhhh that’s mad”
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In other news, fans were left buzzing over this post from a youngster.
