Argentina goalie's insane history-making performance not enough to claim World Cup crown

For 106 minutes, Emiliano “Dibu” Martínez authored the kind of World Cup final performance that goalkeepers dream about and the history books remember forever.

It just didn’t end with the World Cup trophy.

Spain eventually broke through Argentina’s resistance in extra time, escaping with a 1-0 victory after Ferran Torres buried the game-winner past Martínez from close range.

The goal crowned Spain as World Cup champions for the second time — and first since 2010 — but it also put a punctuation mark on one of the greatest individual goalkeeping displays ever seen in a final.

Martínez saved a World Cup final-record 10 shots in regulation before finishing with 11 saves in all.

Time after time, as Spain kept carving open Argentina’s defense, Martínez would come up with the save to snuff out the attack. He dove full stretch in every direction, smothered point-blank chances and punched away dangerous crosses. He made impossible saves look routine throughout the match and without him, the final would have been over long before extra time.

Argentina managed just two shots all afternoon, the first coming off the foot of Lionel Messi in the 117th minute. Spain dominated possession, dictated the tempo and unleashed 20 shots, wave after wave relentlessly crashing against Martínez like the Atlantic against a Spanish cliffside.

But even the strongest of walls eventually crack.

In the 106th minute, Pedro Porro floated a teasing cross toward the back post where Nico Williams stretched to nod the ball back to Torres across the face of the goal. Torres, who had yet to score in the tournament, drilled home the goal that delivered Spain its second title.

For Martínez, it was the one save he couldn’t make.

The cruel ending felt especially harsh considering what the Aston Villa goalkeeper had endured simply to reach the final. Martínez revealed before the match that he played the entire 2026 FIFA World Cup with a fractured ring finger on his right hand, an injury suffered during warmups before Aston Villa’s Europa League match in May. Rather than undergo surgery, he delayed the procedure and fought through weeks of pain.

“My hand still hurts,” Martínez admitted Friday. “I knew my hand was going to be hurting. I tried to avoid going through surgery. I consulted a great deal of hand specialists in England, in the States and other countries. They told me I will have to undergo surgery. In the beginning of the World Cup I couldn’t even train with the team. That really had an impact on me because I love training sessions.”

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Ironically, Spain goalkeeper Unai Simón won the Golden Glove award for the tournament’s best goalkeeper and made history at the opposite end of the field without making a single save. His clean sheet was a record seventh in World Cup play, though it spoke as much to Spain’s suffocating midfield and disciplined back line as it did to the goalkeeper behind them.

Years from now, history will remember Spain lifting the trophy in front of a tearful Messi.

It should also remember that for 106 unforgettable minutes, Martínez nearly stole it from them with nothing but two battered hands and extraordinary resolve.