The one who played 31 times died this Tuesday at 58 years old. Martini had been hospitalized since last week due to a heart attack suffered while he was in the Montpellier training center. This was announced by Montpellier, with whom the goalkeeper played four seasons and for which he was currently working as deputy director of the training center. On its website, Montpellier paid tribute to what it called “one of the greatest goalkeepers in the history of French football”.
Martini was born in Nevers (central France) in January 1962 and trained in Auxerre, which initially gave Nancy two years between 1983 and 1985, where he developed a good part of his career and with which he won the French Cup. in 1994.
The following year he arrived at Montpellier, whose goal he defended 120 times, until he hung up his boots in 1999. With the 'bleu' team, he performed between 1987 and 1996. He defended the French goal at the 1992 UEFA Eurocup. France, Martins, renowned for his sobriety and discretion, relieved Joel Bats and gave the relief to Fabien Barthez. With the ‘bleu’ Under-21 team he was European champion, along with the generation formed by Eric Cantona, the former Barcelona player Laurent Blanc and Vincent Guérin.
From that moment on, he became a member of the National Technical Directorate in which he was in charge of the goalkeepers of the French team for more than a dozen years. In this position he was European champion in 2000 and world runner-up in 2006. He returned to Montpellier at the end of 2013.