Carlos Martínez, 'The Lodosa Express', leaves football

The Lod Lodosa Express ’has reached its destination on the railroad track of its sports career. Dfter 15 seasons in professional football, eleven of them at Real Sociedad, right-back Carlos Martínez has announced his retirement. The Navarrese was a key player in the generation of the Donostia club that took him out of the Second Division well and led him to play the Champions League.

The injuries ended up frustrating the career of this brave Navarrese side, a player who always left everything on the field of play and who could have gone much further, both in the Txuri-Urdin entity and internationally. He had to leave Real because of an injury from which he did not fully recover, to try to continue his career at Real Oviedo in Second, where half of the season was lost for that reason; and then in Segunda B at Real Burgos, where he recovered his best version, He was able to play in Zubieta again and he experienced the most bitter face in football when he terminated his contract in very bad ways. The last months he had been training with the Irun Real Union squad with the hope of getting back on some project. But the sudden stoppage of all football and the subsequent confinement made him think that it was time to step aside and channel his life by another way, trying to also have to do with football because now he will begin to train as a coach.

Carlos Martínez belongs to the generation of the Zurutuza, Xabi Prieto, Ansotegi, Markel Bergara, Dani Estrada, Agirretxe … a group of players who lived through one of the most critical moments in the recent history of Real, managing to save it with the promotion of 2010 and laying the foundations for what is today a team once more settled in First Division and an increasingly common candidate for the European posts. He came to Zubieta very young from his native town, Lodosa, at just 13 years old, and he was in Real Sociedad for 18 years, eleven as a member of the realistic first team.

Known in the locker room as ‘Txarly’, he earned the nickname LodThe Lod Lodosa Express ’ for his particular way of approaching matches, always with character, claw and fight, raising Anoeta's band with its characteristic mane in the wind and with its precise centers … with its left leg! Because his favorite technical action was a cut inward to center precisely with his left foot. They even joked that he hit the ball better with his bad leg, to the point of taking out a shirt with his cartoon and the slogan “I recognize it, I'm left-handed.” Carlos Martínez already received in Anoeta his deserved tribute from the fans of Real Sociedad, who have always shown him great affection, when he left the royalist club, coinciding with the retirement of Xabi Prieto. Chance has meant that his farewell to football coincides with that of another well-liked player of his generation, David Zurutuza, with whom he was in the Real 17 of his 18 years in all categories, until being roommates on the trips of the first team. ‘Txarly’ will always be part of one of the most important moments in Real's recent history, it will always be remembered by Real fans.