Football Daily - Roberto Martinez - The Football Interview

Episode Date: February 14, 2026

In this week’s edition of the Football Interview, Kelly Somers speaks to Portugal Manager Roberto Martinez. They discuss his journey into football, from becoming a player at Real Zaragoza and moving over to play in the UK not knowing a word of English, to managing Wigan Athletic to their historic FA Cup win against Manchester City in 2013. They also get into what it's like managing at an international level with the golden generation of Belgium and how he takes Portugal into the World Cup this summer with a legend in Cristiano Ronaldo.5 Live / BBC Sounds commentaries: Sat 1215 Burton v West Ham, Sat 1745 Villa v Newcastle, Sat 2000 Liverpool v Brighton, Sun 1200 Birmingham v Leeds, Sun 1330 Grimsby v Wolves, Sun 1630 Rangers v Hearts, Mon 1930 Macclesfield v Brentford.

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From the BBC, this is the interface. the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world. This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews. It's about what technology is actually doing to your work, your politics, your everyday life, and all the bizarre ways people are using the internet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. The Football Interview on the Football Daily podcast. I'm Kelly Summers, and this season I'll be interviewing some of the biggest names in football.

asking them the questions they don't normally get asked as I try to find out more about the person behind the player or manager. The first half will be on football for second on their life away from the pitch. This isn't just any interview, this is the football interview. And this week, my guest is Portugal head coach Roberto Martinez. Roberto, thank you so much for your time today. Pleasure, Kelly. Let's start with football.

Why football? For me, it's a way of living. I was born in a family that he was breathing football. My dad was mad about football. My dad was a coach at that time, a local team. I would be the mascot. And I would be, I've got pictures where probably at the age of two and three. I would be listening to the team talks

and I would be in that environment of the dressing room. So that for me was a safe zone. I thought that all the kids did that. I thought that was the normal thing to do. And then I realized that it was the opposite. No many kids had the opportunity to be in a team talk of the local team. Was that local team then your first? property that you played for? Yes, on the 9th. I remember obviously you play in school.

In Spain, we got this futsal. As a young student, you play with your futsal team in the school on Friday, and then on Saturday you play with a football team. Was there a point where you thought, okay, I could make this? When you were looking around maybe at the other kids and thought, I'm at a good level here. At 16, if you want to play football, you have to go into a more professional standard. I got the opportunity to go to Zaragoza. I moved to the big city, Zaragoza. You stood there and then you see the parents coming. To watch the game at the weekend was almost a ritual. When you look back on your career, which club do you feel was where you had your most success when you look back on? Or you enjoyed the most? I enjoyed them all. They were all

different. They were all challenging. I think I was in 95 when the bossman ruling came out. We were three, the first three Spaniards to come to the UK. The three Amigos, were you? The three Amigos, yes. And I think that's probably, in my career, I think as a human being, we're always fearful. We don't like change. I was always the opposite. My answer would be, why not?

Would you like to go to the UK without speaking a word of English and play football? So you can't speak English when you came over? No, no, no. We arrived the first day at Wigan, and I remember the press officer saying, and put your mind to do a little bit, a couple of words with the local media. I said, I would love to, but I don't speak a word of English. And those are the challenges that they really make you as a person. Let's talk just quickly about that FA Cup final,

because that's still one of the greatest shocks, one of the greatest FA Cup finals in history. How do you reflect upon that all these years later? With a lot of pride, the dreams can really happen in the FA Cup. And I think that game in a final, you play in the Champions of England, Man City with all the stars. The odds are against the underdog. I think everybody likes an underdog. I always found out that we had so many neutral fans that day that you want to follow there.

That's what happens in the FA Cup. But to actually perform and deserve to win was very special. At what point did you think management is for me? Was it always management? Always. Always. Yeah, because... From even when you were a really young player?

Yeah, because my dad was managing. I thought that was the best. Did you almost envisage being a manager before a player? Yes, yes. Yes, because I never saw my dad play. And it was fascinating because I was, by coming to the UK in 95, straight away, they tell you there is no eye in team. You have to adjust to the group

and you have to do whatever it takes to be with the group. The reality doesn't work like that. It's the opposite. You have to address the eye before you can create a team. And sometimes you were in the corner of a room thinking completely different culture, different background. and you expect it to perform without having a help to be settled, to feel that you are valuable.

And there are many aspects that I learned from my own experience of being away from home. And without me knowing it, that was preparing me for that side that you need to get of how to get a team to be together, to have the same goal and to be able to perform on the beach. Other from your dad, who's had the biggest influence on Roberta, Martin is the manager. I was intrigued by Johann Croix the way he managed Barcelona.

It came in, it changed completely the way that the game was played. And I think many, many people in the last 100 years do the influence the game. But I don't think nobody has influenced the game the way that Johann Croix did it, because it changed. It was more a technical game. It was a possession-based game. It was about a numerical advantage. And then you created the ones that they didn't follow that way of football. They had to find a way to counter play that styles. And then I followed many other managers. I think what John Toshach did when he went to Real Sociedad and then went to Real Madrid.

I love Pacho Maturana, what I did with the Colombian team. Ariosaki is structured and rigorous and methodic. I always enjoyed how managers get their... get their message across to the players and in a different way all of them. Have you ever had an opportunity to go and watch any of those managers? Like we've spoken to Andonia, Aureola, Brendan Rogers this year, and they talked about managers that they went and kind of learnt from. Have you had anyone like that, any mentors or anything?

I was just watching games. I think I like to watch a game and I tried to double guess. How did that happen? How did you take the risk to, to get to the player to understand what you're trying to work. I never went to see anybody work, but I followed many World Cups. I started managing in the Premier League in 2009 every summer with my wife. I would invite her over to go to South Africa first and then Poland and then Brazil and then France.

Our holidays were following the big tournaments. So she thought she was going on a lovely exotic holiday but she was actually in the tournament. I think the first time, yeah. Then she cottoned on. And then she knew, because I was still over. From this day, I still owe a nice honeymoon because the honeymoon when we got married was South Africa

and she was delighted. She didn't realize that it was the World Cup. You've obviously seen management from both sides as well in terms of club management and international management. How do the two differ? Coaching in the Premier League is about tomorrow and it was about preparing the game that is in front of you,

preparing the players, that they can make a difference in winning the game. International football is about trying to find out the best talent and then to make it in a structured way to make it competitive. And you've got three days to do that. That's very different to do it in a club level. Everything is more tactically synchronized. Everything can be more methodic.

International football is about creating good mood, creating a sense of pride, creating high-performance teams that they follow in their dreams. Because when you represent your national team, affects your family, the neighbors, if you win the whole country wins, when you lose, the whole country loses. It's a completely different way of enjoying the game.

I was fascinated about being involved in a World Cup that was one of my dreams as a kid. I think we all follow the first, World Cup that I remember 78, Argentina, Mario Kempes scoring in the final, then 82 was in Spain, so it was a big impact. So for me, the move to international football was just to experience a World Cup. Then I enjoyed it so much that I stayed almost 10 seasons now. Let's discuss your time with Belgium, because what an incredible group of players you had there, the golden generation, they said, what challenges did that job bring with it?

And what did you get from that period? Well, first and foremost was to cope with that tag of golden generation. Pressure. Because it wasn't a pressure that the players were not used to it, because obviously you're talking about the players that they are in the most demanding dressing rooms, talking from Eden Hazar to Kevin DeBroner, Dris Merton, Romeroq, Lucaco, Axelvitz, Albertong, and Bermaleng, Bermaleng, Company, Tibu, Curtua, Janik Carrasco. You're talking about the generation.

But I think we managed to focus on, okay, let's be as good as we can. together and let's become the golden generation. I think that was a beautiful journey to go to the World Cup in 2018. I thought we were obviously out of seven games, we won six, we only lost the semi-final against France, one-nil. There were little margins that it happens but then we became third by winning the bronze medal in the last game. That is the moment that it became the golden generation.

At that moment it was a shift into what we could do from that point. and that team stayed four years consecutively's number one ranking and and that was there was a very interesting time to try to to get a focus of everybody having that common goal that it was tried to make history for for Belgian football and it was really really enjoyable now I always ask in these interviews for my interviewer to tell me a game from their career playing or managerial that they wish they could relive I think if I could relieve a game would be the semi-final with Belgium against France because we lost one nil.

I felt we were the better team. We had almost 60% possession and it was just decided by one action, one nil. And if it is one game that I could relieve to try to change it, it would be that one. Do you think about it a lot or are you able to just park it now? No, sometimes I like to think about it. If we were going to play it again with the same situation, what could it be done different? And that helps. That helps.

I think the margins are so small. You've got the best players possible of two generations. And I think you can learn from having already the experience of being in a game like that. And you've not got a bad crop of players now. Portugal, have you? You've already won the Nations League. And what an opportunity potentially ahead for you. The pressure is going to be there again.

But it's an enjoyable pressure. Because it is true we arrived in, obviously, in Portugal. Huge tradition, always created big players through the history. and how we celebrated the moment that Eusebio won the Ballon Dor in 1965. You got players like Louis Figue or Jo Pint or Ruiz Costa. It's a tradition in Portugal. But they won everything apart from the World Cup. We got an incredible commitment from the players

because this is probably a mixture of four generations. You got from the captain that is 40 years old to the youngest player that he arrived, that he was born the year that the captain made the debut for the national team. So we're looking forward. The first step is qualify. We did that and I always believe that there has never been a winning team that arrives to the tournament. The winning team becomes the winning team in the tournament. That captain of course is Cristiano Ronaldo.

What's it like managing him? Very easy because he's high standards, his expectations of how the work should be done and his commitment to the game. It truly is an example of what you should do to represent Portugal and the national team. And now it's adapted, obviously, after 21 years career in the national team, is adjusted, it's a goal scorer, is an important player for us. And it's the player that is now that is important for me. As a national team coach, a player that has scored 25 goals in the last 30 international games,

is not that he's playing because of what is done in the past. It's what is done now. The question everyone's asking at the moment is, how long can he go on for? Or as someone that's seen him close up, how long do you think he can keep playing for? Well, we've got all the stats. If you were going to analyze a player that is dropping at physical level, that's not the case. His physical stats of a player that he could go on and on and on. I think it's more a question of when he'll feel that is the right time.

I think he's a player that is very auto-critical with himself. When he doesn't see that he can help the team, he'll be the one that he'll decide when to stop. You've got two girls and you're married to a Scottish lady, is that correct? Absolutely. Is that from your time in Scotland? In Mother World, yeah, that was the best thing. So that must be quite the culture kind of mix at home? Especially when you are the national team coach of Portugal playing against Scotland.

I think it's been four times now that we've played with Belgium against Scotland. Obviously with my wife, it's no a problem. It's more the in-laws. It's difficult for them to support a team that is different than Scotland. But no, that's part of the fun. I'm very, very lucky. And probably that's the biggest achievement that I want to have in my life is to be the best father that I can be

and the best husband that I can be. Everything else is going to be just part of the journey. Tell me something about yourself that might surprise me. I've never tasted alcohol. Not one drop? Never. Impressive. Yeah, and it was a promise when I was 16

and I had the opportunity to go to Zaragoza. I went to my dad and said, I really want to go. And he said, what do you think? He said, well, it's the worst thing you could do because you're going to be, you're very young, 16, you're going to be away from home. And the first thing you're going to do is start drinking, start smoking, you're going to give up your studies.

And I said, well, I promise you, I'll do my degree, I'll never drink, I'll never smoke. And then since that day, that was my commitment. So I'm 52 now, and I'm proud to say that. I never teach a drop of alcohol. If you were to win the World Cup next summer, would you make a minute? Probably, yeah, I think I will be quite happy to know another commitment, yes.

Five live sports. The Six Nations. Rugby's greatest championship. What a day of the Six Nations it's been. Live commentary of every match on BBC Sounds. And I think he has to try. Just a stunning score. One of the all-time great tries.

The Rugby and a weekly podcast will be daily throughout the tournament with all the best insight and analysis and the biggest names in the game. The Six Nations. Listen on BBC. If there was a big rent button that would just demolish the internet, I would smash that button with my forehead. From the BBC, this is the interface, the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world. This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews. It's about what technology is actually doing to your work, your politics, your everyday life.

And all the bizarre ways people are using the internet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.