When a club has boasted the likes of Dino Zoff and Gianluigi Buffon among its ranks as Juventus has, it’s understandable that the standard by which goalkeepers are judged is quite high indeed.
After San Gigi vacated the position Wojciech Szczesny did his best to fill those gargantuan shoes and seldom came up short, measuring up admirably. But since he was unceremoniously replaced two seasons ago, the situation in goal has been far less stable. Despite coming in hot off a Serie A Keeper of the Year
performance with Monza in the 2023-24 season, Michele Di Gregorio has struggled with the change in play and expectations when joining a club of Juventus’ stature. And while some stretches of good play have characterized Mattia Perin’s time these past two seasons, whether due to injury or error, he has failed to cement a starting spot despite having several opportunities to do so. (I was somewhat surprised to learn that in the post Szczesny era, he played a mere 14 Serie A games.)
It is no surprise, then, that Juventus are in the market for a more self-assured (and reassuring) goalkeeper, and have been linked with several names, from Liverpool’s Alisson Becker to Atalanta’s Marco Carnesecchi, Tottenham’s Guglielmo Vicario and now Aston Villa’s Emiliano Martínez. Rumours/news about the latter has been picking up steam recently, which makes him an ideal candidate for our latest edition of the background check.
A Tall Order
The Argentine netminder is, like his esteemed Background Check colleague, Alex Sorloth, a tall player. Almost exactly as tall, in fact, standing at 1.95 m compared to the Norwegian’s 1.96 m. Now, there’s nothing to say that a taller keeper is necessarily better — there have been many examples of excellent keepers that weren’t giants. Iker Casillas comes to mind. That said, it does make it easier to reach the furthest parts of the net and to cut off a striker’s angles, and the last two guys who played the position with any real success at Juventus both happened to be on the taller side with Buffon clocking in at 1.92 m and Szczesny at 1.95 m.
The Numbers
Here’s the thing: At the end of the day, Juventus somewhat surprisingly didn’t give up many goals last season.
Relatively speaking, the 34 they did let in was good for third best in Serie A behind only Roma (31) and Como (29). Compared with seasons past it’s not great, but not the worst, either. During the last Scudetto season of the nine-season run, the team was leakier, conceding 43 goals on their way to the title. Then again, other than that final Scudetto-winning season, no other Juve side gave up more than 30 goals during the streak, so we’re still off the pace of a truly competitive squad.
DiGregorio’s stats aren’t all that terrible, either, which makes sense given the low overall number of goals shipped. FBRef lists his and Martinez’s save percentages as virtually identical for the past season, with each saving 70.9% of the shots on target they faced, and only differing by 0.8% the season prior.
They reached those numbers in pretty different ways, however, with Aston Villa allowing Martinez to face 4.25 shots on target per 90 last season and 4.11 the season prior, as compared to DiGregorio’s 2.92 and 3.00 shots on target for those respective seasons. The Argentine has been the busier keeper of the two, to be sure.
The result of the shots not saved by Martinez in those seasons was a goals against per 90 minutes of 1.24 (2025-26) and 1.32 (2024-25), while DiGregorio came in at 0.85 (2025-26) and 0.97 (2024-25). On paper, at least, one could make the case that DiGregorio compares quite favourably with his more experienced counterpart.
A Wealth of Experience
As mentioned above, Juventus’ overall goals against numbers were, in fact, quite good relative to the rest of the league. The team doesn’t need to massively cut down on the goals against column. That said, I’m sure every Juventino can think of at least 17 goals they’d like back — those now infamous goals conceded on the first shot on target of the game.
It’s hard to depict statistically how deflating these were, to the fans and certainly to the players. It’s more the way these goals were scored, and the timing. All too often they came against the run of play, taking the wind out of the sails of a young team and leaving them with an uphill struggle to regain the advantage — a challenge that they ultimately failed too many times to achieve the club’s stated minimum goal of a fourth-place finish.
As far as goaltending is concerned, what Juventus really need a steady hand in net.
This is where the experience of a player like Martinez really comes to the fore. Since 2019, the 33-year-old has been building an impressive trophy cabinet of team and individual honours. With Argentina, he’s won two Copa Americas (2021, 2024) and a World Cup (2022). He’s won the FA Cup with Arsenal (2019-20) and the Europa League with Aston Villa just last season (experience in that competition would sure come in handy for Juventus’ 2026-27 season). Individually, he’s garnered no fewer than 15 individual honours, according to Wikipedia, including Golden Gloves in the Copa America (2021, 2024), World Cup (2022), Footballer of the Year of Argentina (2024), and FIFA Men’s Best Goalkeeper (2022, 2024).
This is a guy who’s been there and done that — at a very high level.
And while, at the age of 33, he’s now in the latter stages of his career, it’s not unusual for top goalkeepers to play into their mid to late 30s. Indeed, most of Martinez’s success has come in the last six to seven years, and he doesn’t appear to be slowing down just yet.
The Budget
Quality and experience don’t often come cheap, and Aston Villa don’t seem to be willing to offer Juventus any frequent shopper discounts on this potential sale. The Birmingham-based club are reportedly asking for at least €10 million for the player’s registration rights. In lieu of Champions League qualification and prize money, this amount, when combined with the over €5 million net per season contract that he has worked out with Juventus, would require balancing elsewhere in the roster.
Then again, if the experience and championship-winning mentality he brings leads to a large enough difference in the number of goals conceded on the first shot on target it may make all the difference in the world. It’s just a matter of who gets sold to offset the cost (there are plenty of players we’d all like to see go, but it’ll be tough to find buyers for the so called ‘dead wood’, and they won’t fetch top dollar euro).
The Verdict
In the final reckoning, a change of starting keepers is a necessity regardless of how good the numbers looked on paper. With the prospect of a second season in a row of missing out on Champions League funds, the stakes are too high to gamble on DiGregorio bouncing back if there are better options available. And there are few available today that can match Martinez’s pedigree.
If there’s any way to make the numbers work, Martinez is a safer bet to backstop the Old Lady on her journey out of the wilderness and back to Serie A and (hopefully) European relevance.
