One goal, one moment, one kick of the ball. That's all it takes to change the course of a career, a life, and a legacy of football players.
As he collapsed to the pitch at the full-time whistle of the 2024 Copa America final, Lautaro Martinez found himself at exactly that kind of crossroad. His hands covering his face as the emotion flowed, an entire career of big-game frustration flowed out onto the pitch, replaced instead by the major tournament title he himself delivered a nation.
The 26-year-old striker has spent his entire career to this point labeled — rightly so — as a player who scores lots of goals right up until the most important moments, when he would fall flat.
Yet, in the 112th minute of the title match between Argentina and Colombia in Miami, Martinez found the back of the net to deliver his country a third straight major international tournament. It was a goal that will forever change the narrative of his career.
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"We thought that Lautaro was going to have a big chance and that he was going to score it," said Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni after the Copa America final. "We said it to each other on the bench."
The moment came at the most fitting possible time. Angel Di Maria, himself once a highly criticized player amidst the generation of players that repeatedly failed to win a major international trophy, found the back of the net in a 1-0 win over Brazil to win the 2021 Copa America title — and everything changed.
In Di Maria's final match before international retirement, he would pass the torch to Martinez, who delivered the goods when needed the most.
"He has been my nine always, forever," Scaloni said. "He didn’t start in the [Copa America] final but he has shown that he is an expert goal scorer. Maybe he’s not happy because he didn’t start, but he went in and he gave it his best."
If you were unsure how Martinez was perceived by the national team, here's food for thought: Despite leading the 2024 Copa America with five goals, the Inter man was not in the starting lineup for the final, with Julian Alvarez given the nod instead.
In fact, Lautaro had managed to start just two matches all tournament long. All four of his goals prior to the final had come in the group stage, underpinning again how he managed to find the net only in matches of less importance. Blanked again in the quarterfinals and semifinals, the monkey remained firmly on his back as the game kicked off (after an 80-minute delay) in Miami.
This past season at the club level, it was more of the same for Lautaro. He raced to the Serie A top goal scorer award, helping Inter win the Scudetto, but he managed to net just twice in the Champions League, both in the group stage, as his Italian side was bounced in the Round of 16. He came up empty in the 2023 Champions League final, too, and was unable to score a single goal in Argentina's 2022 World Cup title run.
"He gave us so much in Qatar," Scaloni said after the Copa America final. "He does so many things for us, we need to value it all."
Then in Miami on Sunday night, all of that was erased. One goal, one moment, one kick changed everything. Now, Lautaro Martinez is a big-game player. Now, he's delivered his team a title when they needed him the most. Just like it did for Di Maria, who retires an Argentina legend, this goal very well may catapult Martinez to football fame, and at 26, he has plenty more time to write a new story.
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