UNAI EMERY will speak to Emiliano Martinez about “controlling his emotions” following his controversial World Cup celebrations.
The goalkeeper is due to report back to Aston Villa on Thursday after spending the week partying in Argentina with team-mates following Sunday’s dramatic final.
Emiliano Martinez’s World Cup celebrations have proven controversial
Unai Emery will warn Martinez about keeping his emotions in check
Martinez’s antics in the penalty shootout edged his country to victory over France.
But the 30-year-old, who will miss Villa’s Boxing Day clash with Liverpool, has come under fire for crossing the line with his conduct since.
The French FA yesterday made an official complaint to Argentina over Martinez’s taunting of Kylian Mbappe.
Emery said: “I am going to speak with him because I want to talk to him about controlling his emotions.
“When I knew him at Arsenal he was telling me in that moment ‘I want to be the first goalkeeper of Argentina.’ He achieved it.
“The last time I met with him here I was talking about his ambition and he told me he wanted to be the best goalkeeper in the world.
“I want players like that. His mind is so strong.
“Maybe his celebration, the reason, is coming from that.
“Players like Emiliano, when we can control him, with a good balance between winning and losing with big emotions, he is the best Emiliano we can have.”
Despite initially consoling Mbappe, who scored a hat-trick in the game and scored again in the shoot-out, Martinez was filmed calling for a “minute’s silence” for the forward in the Argentina dressing room post-match.
And, during their open-top bus tour of Buenos Aires, he was seen carrying a toy doll with the France forward’s face taped over it.
French FA president Noel Le Graet blasted: “I wrote to my counterpart from the Argentine Federation.
“I find these excesses abnormal, in the context of a sports competition, and I find it difficult to understand.
“This is going too far. Mbappe’s behaviour has been exemplary.”
And French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said: “I am not ruling out discussing this with my counterpart.
“I find all of this quite pitiful.”
After beating Holland in the quarter-final on penalties, spot-kick specialist Martinez claimed that “useless” Spanish ref Antonio Mateu Lahoz wanted Argentina to lose the game “because Spain were eliminated.”
And he taunted Dutch boss Louis van Gaal on the pitch after the win, later saying he should “keep his mouth shut” for saying his side were favourites if the game went to penalties.
Martinez has been celebrating back home in Argentina
Martinez also made a crude gesture after being presented with the World Cup Golden Glove award.
And yesterday, speaking to fans in his hometown of Mar del Plata, Martinez aimed a pop at France midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni — who missed a penalty in the final after the keeper rolled the ball away for him to fetch.
Martinez said: “I knew the boy was tense and that he would lose his mind, so I provoked him.
“I tried to play him mentally by throwing the ball away, talking to him. He f* it all.”
Martinez is set to come up against France keeper Hugo Lloris — his opposite number in the final — on his Villa return at Tottenham on January 1.
Emery says it is important that players show dignity and sportsmanship.
Emery added: “We can’t know really how these things happen in the moments. When you win you are in the highest emotion possible.
“It is difficult maybe to control some situation you lived before, with the opposition.
“I prefer to be focused on how he performed and how he is going to win with us afterwards.
“We have to have values. We have to focus the behaviour with us, when we are together and with the opposition players.
“We can speak 90 per cent about very good things, to be very proud of him, for his performance, for his win.”
