Lautaro Martínez defies the doubters to maintain Inter Milan’s Serie A title challenge

Memories are short in football, a reality Lautaro Martínez appreciates better than most.

Last month, when the Internazionale forward reacted with exasperation after being withdrawn late in the second half of a 2-1 Champions League defeat at Atlético Madrid, the brickbats were not long in coming. It was Inter’s second straight loss, following a 1-0 derby defeat three days earlier, and the second time in as many games that Martínez, the club captain, had been substituted. The keyboard warriors needed no further invitation, branding the 28-year-old Argentina international a flat-track bully on social media.

Never mind that Martínez had scored in each of his previous three games for club and country. Never mind his reputation as one of the game’s leading marksmen. Never mind that Martínez, who has so often put his body on the line for the club, had defied illness merely to make the starting line-up. 

Lautaro Martínez: ‘The criticism didn’t surprise me’

The striker’s response was emphatic: a match-winning brace that temporarily gave him the lead in the race for the capocannoniere, a position he now shares with Christian Pulisic, who is also on seven goals. Martínez followed up by scoring the opener against Como last weekend, laying the foundations for a 4-0 rout. Like the carping, the goals were nothing out of the ordinary for the Inter talisman.

“The criticism didn’t surprise me,” he said after picking up a performance prize at Gazzetta dello Sport’s annual awards ceremony in Milan on Thursday night, two days after Liverpool ended Inter’s 18-match unbeaten home run in Europe.

“It’s part of the game, because expectations are high. You just have to know how to handle the difficult moments, as well as the good ones.”

For Martínez, who has scored 164 goals in 354 appearances for Inter since signing from Argentine Primera División side Racing in July 2018, the good moments have far outweighed the difficult ones. In addition to reaching two Champions League finals in three years, the striker’s trophy haul in Milan includes two Scudetti, a pair of Coppa Italia titles and three Supercoppa Italiana wins. As events have shown, neither silverware nor his status as the fourth-highest goalscorer in club history are enough to insulate Martínez from criticism, but the World Cup winner has come to take the game’s buffets and rewards in his stride.

Lautaro Martínez: ‘I enjoy my career’

“I’ve realised that if someone attacks me, it’s often because they want to be in my shoes,” said Martínez. “When I was young, I might have been hurt by reading and hearing bad things about myself, but now I deal with them more calmly. And I enjoy my career.”

So much so, that he admits he doesn’t always pause to appreciate the numbers behind his achievements. There was little time to reflect on details amid the relentless endeavour that punctuated a childhood shaped by humble circumstances and a determination to succeed for a family whose love and support laid the foundations for all that followed. That focused mindset remains, to the point where Martínez admits he was unaware his 11-goal tally for Inter so far this season – he also has four for Argentina – puts him five ahead of where he was this time last year.

‘As a child, I went through difficult times’

“These are significant numbers, which I sometimes don’t even realise,” the striker admitted. “They are rewards for my work, like the one from Gazzetta, which makes me proud: as a child, I went through difficult times; if I hadn’t had my family by my side, I would never have managed to emerge. For this reason, today I always thank the people who love me.”

If he scores at Genoa on Sunday team-time to maintain Inter’s narrow advantage over Napoli at the top of Serie A, even the online agitators will love Martínez.