Walking on to a balcony that overlooks Inter Miami’s training pitches wearing the club’s distinct pink and black training gear, Josef Martínez settled in for his first one-on-one as an Inter Miami player. He held a cup of coffee in one hand and his cell phone in the other, with the sounds of an English Premier League match blared from the speakers. It was Newcastle United vs. Liverpool, and Martínez had a rooting interest.
“I’m watching my guy (Miguel Almirón),” Martínez said with a laugh. “(Newcastle’s) getting beat and they just had the goalkeeper sent off.”
It’s still strange to see Martínez in Inter Miami colors. His six seasons in Atlanta were highlighted by his prolific partnership with Almirón in 2017 and 2018, and multiple league and individual honors thereafter. For most of the club’s existence, Martínez was synonymous with Atlanta United’s red and black stripes. That hasn’t changed, even though his exit from the city was hasty and rife with turmoil.
The tone of his voice isn’t angry when he talks about Atlanta United. There’s a bit of restraint, yes, but generally, Martínez seems legitimately saddened by the way it all ended. Asked if there’s distance between some members of the 2018 Atlanta United team and the club, Martínez answered “Yes, by a lot.”
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“I played against (Darlington) Nagbe (in preseason) and we reminisced about a lot of things,” said Martínez. “He’s a great person and he knows how things ended there for him, too. A player who in my opinion is the best player that I’ve seen in this league. The only player who was given a proper sendoff was Parky (Michael Parkhurst). The rest of us all left through the back door. All of us did and we were the players who won a championship for the club. I get it. We’re employees and unfortunately we all left in that manner, but I’ll always be thankful. Hopefully someday, well actually, starting now, (Atlanta United) will be thankful to the players.
He continued.
“We give our bodies to the organization. We bleed for the organization. If after giving so much to the club, one leaves the club in that manner, that leaves a lot to be desired. Up until today, I don’t remember receiving a message from (Arthur Blank).”
His voice lowered when he mentioned Blank, the club’s owner. Martínez may have butted heads with his coaches in Atlanta, but his relationship at the very top of the organization was always positive. In a statement to The Athletic, Blank expressed his intention of meeting with Martínez when the time is right.
“Josef will always be part of Atlanta United’s history and he’ll go down as one of the most beloved players by our fans, team, and my family,” Blank wrote, in part. “It’s never easy when a long-time Falcons or United player’s time in Atlanta ends – there’s always a degree of sadness in that moment for me, but I take heart in knowing those relationships will go on. I look forward to sitting down with Josef in the future when our schedules align and enjoying a long friendship with him as I do with many, many others.”
After playing 158 games and scoring 111 goals across all competitions for Atlanta United, the lack of farewell stung the Venezuelan, but on this day, one week before his Inter Miami regular season debut, Martínez is smiling again.
“Right now I’m happy, especially after the birth of my son,” he said. “I really like Miami. I’d come here anytime I had time off, even for a few days. The Venezuelan community is really big here. I have a lot of friends (in Miami), long time friends and we’re also close to home (Venezuela).”
Martínez laughs when asked what kind of father he is. “A fool,” he said. “I don’t know anything! I like when he falls asleep on my chest. I really do, but it’s tough. Had I known how this was going to make me feel, I would’ve had kids earlier. I love kids. So imagine how I feel about my own.”
That’s the softer side of Martínez. And fatherhood will give men a new perspective on life. But on the field, strikers have to be ruthless. Thick skin and a short memory are requirements. Asked if he had the same hunger and snarl that fans loved and opponents feared, Martínez leaned in and answered without hesitation.
“That’s the only me that I know,” he said. “In the end, this is a game, a sport. Everyone wants to win. (Miami) is a young club that wants to write its own history and do as well as possible. I’m here to win. I’m not here because I wanted a new uniform or because I’m here for one year. No. I’m here to win.”
(Photo: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports)
Martínez signed with Inter Miami as a free agent in late January; a one-year deal with an option for a second year. It could be an ideal situation for both parties if Martínez can recoup his form in front of goal. Martínez scored 77 regular season goals in his first three seasons in Atlanta. He notched 21 his final two seasons, in which a major injury, new tactics, and a coaching carousel inhibited his production.
His new manager Phil Neville told The Athletic that he was his top transfer target following the retirement of Gonzalo Higuaín.
“We were talking about the roster and you know (Inter Miami’s owners) love to get involved in everything. I said, “What about Josef Martínez?” Because I knew everything wasn’t right in Atlanta,” Neville explained.
The situation between Martínez and Atlanta United had deteriorated towards the end of the 2022 season. Martínez had one year left on his contract when Atlanta’s technical director Carlos Bocanegra informed Martínez in October that he was no longer part of the club’s future. After serving a one-week suspension for what Atlanta United deemed “conduct detrimental to the team,” which stemmed from locker room altercation with head coach Gonzalo Pineda, Martínez’s exit from the club was all but done.
Martínez doesn’t run from his reputation for being difficult for managers to control. But just two months into his time with Miami, Martínez is on his best behavior.
“I’m not doing any of my s— yet because I just got here,” he said with a laugh. “Obviously I get really mad when I lose. I’m taking it easy right now. But that’s the only Josef that I know and I won’t ever change for anybody.”
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For Neville, the pros to that approach outweighed the cons.
“There was one thing that kept sticking in my mind: he’s a winner,” Neville said of Martínez. “And every time I kept speaking to someone outside of this football club, around people that knew him, they kept saying, ‘If things are bad, he’ll challenge you; if he doesn’t win at five-a-side, he’ll be angry.’ And I kept saying ‘is that bad, or is that good?’ I want 22 more of these players.”
In Miami, Martínez isn’t expected to be the player that he was for Atlanta United when he took the league by storm. Now at 29 years old, the Venezuela national team forward has considerable mileage on his legs, namely a surgically-repaired right knee that forced him to miss the majority of the 2020 MLS season. He joined Inter Miami’s preseason camp later than his new teammates and has been playing catch up ever since.
That knee is mended, but it’s still a sore subject for Martínez.
“When things weren’t going well (in Atlanta), everyone said it was my knee,” said Martínez. “They always had to find something. Anything in order to minimize the problems there. As soon as I arrived, they got straight to the point and I passed (my medical). I haven’t had any issues with my knee since my last surgery after the D.C. (United) game (on April 2, 2022).”
Martínez has started in Inter Miami’s first two matches. He played 68 minutes to start the season against Montreal and 75 minutes the following weekend against MLS Cup favorites Philadelphia — both 2-0 wins for Miami. Evident throughout the first two matches was Martínez’s soft first touch, his underappreciated hold up play and his ability to bring his teammates into the game. He finished with just two shots on goal, however, which was a product of a still developing chemistry with his teammates, plus the incorporation of a number of new signings for Inter Miami.
Injury to Ecuadorian striker Leonardo Campana has forced Neville to play with one true center forward, though his plan is to pair the 22-year-old center forward with Martínez. Internally, the hope is that Martínez and Campana can gradually become one of the league’s top attacking tandems.
Miami sporting director Chris Henderson, who became a renowned front office executive with the Seattle Sounders, commended Martínez’s character and compared him to a Sounders great.
“(Martínez) reminds me a little bit of Obafemi Martins,” said Henderson. “A goal scorer who just is like, ‘I’m here to score goals. I’m driven. And if I don’t do that, I’m not doing my job.’”
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In Seattle, Martins formed an effective partnership with American attacker Clint Dempsey, becoming an MLS Best XI striker and an MVP award finalist in 2014. Henderson believes that a Martínez-Campana front line could be just as successful.
“If they can figure out how to play together, then you might have something that can just click,” Henderson said.
Martínez says that numbers don’t matter too much to him at this stage of his career. “The ring is all that matters. Nothing else,” he claimed. But he is keeping an eye on one major milestone, with 98 regular season MLS goals to his name. If he reaches 101, Martínez will pass Taylor Twellman at No. 10 on the MLS all time scoring list. That alone would be a massive achievement for Martínez, but Martínez is aiming higher.
“I’m trying to get close to Wondolowski,” Martínez said, referring to MLS all-time scoring leader Chris Wondolowski, who tops the list at 171 goals. “That’s my biggest personal goal. I want to surpass him. Hopefully I can do that and obviously to win a title for this club. The organization and the city need that.”
Martínez is happy again, even if the path to renewed contentment wasn’t what he had planned. After 30 minutes of toeing the line, Martínez ends the interview with a classic clap back.
“From the moment I arrived (in MLS) I knew this was a show,” he said. “You’re important until they say you’re not anymore. Then you’re just a regular person. I’m grateful to the fans who pay to see me play. The fans who go to the stadium and buy my jersey. Those are the people who I truly value. Listen, my numbers are right there. Whoever wants to see them can. I could care less about those who don’t.”
(Photo: Rich Storry-USA TODAY Sports)
