Juventus prowl for Emi Martinez as Aston Villa set asking price

When a club of Juventus’s stature cannot resolve its goalkeeper position across an entire season, something has gone wrong at a structural level.

The Bianconeri have rotated between Michele Di Gregorio and Mattia Perin this campaign – a compromise arrangement that has satisfied nobody – and the search for a definitive number one has taken on real urgency as the summer window approaches.

Into that vacuum steps a name that requires no introduction. According to Sky Italia, Emi Martinez has emerged as a concrete target for Juventus, with Aston Villa prepared to sell the Argentine for €5 million.

That figure, as we will examine, deserves significant scrutiny – but the direction of travel is clear. Juventus want a goalkeeper of genuine authority, and they have identified one of the best in the world as a candidate.

Get Football News Italy reports the same terms, noting that Martinez’s wage demands – understood to stand at €7 million per season – represent the more complex half of any potential agreement.

Emi Martinez: The World Cup Winner Juventus Want Between the Posts

Emiliano Martínez is, on his best days, as complete a goalkeeper as the modern game produces.

The 33-year-old Argentine is not simply a shot-stopper: he is a sweeper-keeper of genuine range, comfortable sweeping behind a high defensive line, and an outfield-level distributor whose ability to play out from the back fits the possession-oriented systems that most elite coaches now demand.

His penalty record – most famously across two World Cup shootouts with Argentina – has taken on almost folkloric status.

His leadership profile is equally relevant. Since Unai Emery arrived at Villa Park and transformed the club’s culture, Martinez has been a totemic presence: vocal, commanding, someone around whom a dressing room organises itself.

He was the best goalkeeper at the 2022 World Cup by some distance, and the years since have not dulled that standing – Villa’s Champions League qualification this season is a collective achievement to which his performances have contributed substantially.

The honest caveat on the profile, though, is age. Martinez turns 34 in the summer of 2026. A five-year contract, or even a three-year deal at the wage level being reported, carries inherent risk for any buying club.

Juventus would be committing €7 million per year to a goalkeeper on the wrong side of 33. That is a calculation that demands careful thought, not reflexive ambition.

Why Juventus Are in the Market for a Goalkeeper of Martinez’s Profile

The context for this pursuit traces back further than the current season. Juventus’s failed move for Liverpool’s Alisson Becker left the club without the elite number one they had targeted, forcing a pivot to the Di Gregorio-Perin arrangement as a short-term solution.

Italian coverage has noted recent errors from Di Gregorio and suggests at least one of the two current keepers is expected to depart before next season. That is not a goalkeeping situation – that is a goalkeeping problem.

What Juventus want is someone whose presence resolves the position for the next two or three years without requiring constant management.

Martinez offers exactly that profile: proven at the highest level, experienced in high-pressure environments, a personality that imposes itself rather than requiring protection.

For a club rebuilding its identity after seasons of domestic and European turbulence, those qualities carry real weight.

Aston Villa’s Valuation: What the €5 Million Asking Price Really Tells Us

Here is where the story becomes complicated. The €5 million figure being reported by Sky Italia sits at striking odds with Villa’s previously stated position.

Italian reports throughout 2024 and into 2025 consistently indicated that Villa were asking in the region of €20 million for Martinez – a figure that aligned more plausibly with his market value, his contract length, and his standing in the game.

Transfermarkt’s most recent valuation has hovered around €15 million. A €5 million asking price for a World Cup-winning goalkeeper under contract until 2029 would represent an extraordinary concession.

The likeliest explanation is that the figure reflects Villa’s willingness to facilitate a departure rather than a formal offer price – or that it is constructed around broader commercial considerations, perhaps including a potential arrangement involving Douglas Luiz, whose move to Turin has not delivered the expected returns and who has been linked with a return to Villa Park as part of a wider deal.

Whatever the mechanism, treating €5 million as a settled, standalone asking price requires caution.

The Honest Caveats: Why This Deal Is Far From Simple

The wage question is the most immediate obstacle. At €7 million per season, Martinez would become one of the highest-paid players at Juventus – for a position that Serie A clubs have historically undervalued in transfer expenditure.

That figure is also significantly higher than what Guglielmo Vicario would demand; Tottenham are asking €15 million for the Italian international, but his wages make him a considerably more economical proposition over the length of a contract.

It is worth noting that the goalkeeper market in Serie A has seen significant movement this summer, with clubs calibrating fees and wages against a new competitive reality.

There is also the question of what Juventus can offer. Villa will play Champions League football next season; Juventus will not, after failing to qualify this campaign.

Martinez, who has played in the group stages of Europe’s premier competition this term, would be stepping down to Europa League football – a meaningful reduction in sporting prestige that any 33-year-old with ambitions remaining should weigh carefully.

Aston Villa’s continued transfer activity, including their pursuit of Serie A talent, signals a club in an upward trajectory – not one making distress sales.

What Happens Next

The summer’s early weeks will be defined by Juventus’s decisions on Di Gregorio and Perin.

If at least one of those departures is confirmed, the club’s need becomes non-negotiable rather than merely preferable, and their leverage in any negotiation weakens accordingly.

Martinez’s own position – whether he actively seeks an exit from a Villa side heading into the Champions League, or whether he is content to remain – will ultimately determine whether any of this progresses beyond speculation.

The Vicario alternative remains live and, on financial grounds alone, represents the more sustainable path. But calcio rarely follows the logical route when a name as compelling as Emi Martinez is in the conversation.

In this market, the distance between a reported €5 million and a realistic deal is where most transfers go to die – and where Juventus will spend their summer finding out what Villa actually want.