The Golden Glove of Qatar 2022 is Emiliano 'Dibu' Martinez. The Argentine goalkeeper has become a trend after preventing France from winning the World Cup. And although the whole world celebrates step by step with him, it is his wife Mandinha who is his support through social media. The couple has a love story with nine years of history and two children: Santi and Ava.
The beginning of their romance happened far away from the Argentine country: it was in London where he met the interior designer of Portuguese descent, who owns a company called Mis Sueños Kids. Here are the details.
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How did 'Dibu' Martínez and Mandinha meet?
The wife of Emiliano gave an interview with the media Telefé and narrated how the first contact with the soccer star was.
"My parents had a restaurant in London, which was known by Arsenal players and he started coming when he was 17 or 18 years old. At that time I was in college and I came to work at the business to help my parents. So, on weekends Emi was there. It happened many times and I was working. He was very shy and so was I. I knew a friend of his and I saw him several times on the street and since he is South American, I thought he could say hello to me," she said.
However, fate would bring them a little closer: "My apartment was next to Emi's. I walked to work and passed by him. I asked his friend: 'Why does he lower his head every time he sees me?'. I thought he was arrogant, because it costs nothing to say 'hello'. (...) In the end, Emi sent me a message to say: 'I'm not arrogant, I'm just shy, but if you want, let's go for a coffee'. Well, we had a coffee, then we went out to dinner several times", she recalled.
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Is 'Dibu' Martínez romantic?
Mandinha also gave details about her perception once she met 'Dibu': "The first time he entered my house, I remember he was so tall that I thought: 'I can't be with him, he's super tall, I'm tiny'. He was always very sweet. He's very nice. I always thought he was the most handsome in the world. But he was always so sweet to me. He's not someone who gives you expensive things. He gives you a flower, he used to write me letters. I have his letters saved.", she emphasized.