Anthony Martial – The Grounded Man
There’s something understated about being a family man as a footballer.
It’s not exactly flashy, having a kid and a down to earth wife. You won’t make the front or back pages of the tabloids house hunting in Manchester with your spouse and baby. It also doesn’t make for especially interesting reading material.
A 19-year-old Anthony Martial looking for a permanent home for his young family, not so much.
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Underneath the transfer fees, bonuses, and wages, Anthony Martial is something of an understated enigma. Especially when you consider the environment young footballers in England are exposed to. Young players are being paid exorbitant amounts of money, more money than we’ve ever seen players make. The concern has always been the same. As Gordon McQueen wrote in 2007, ‘if young players get too much, too soon, they get the trappings of being a successful player without actually being one’.
For Anthony Martial, the understated may be what makes him one of the most consummate forwards and young players currently in the Premier League.
Despite being the most expensive teenager ever purchased in world football, Anthony Martial seems equipped to deal with the pressures of his price tag and high expectations. His view on the transfer price he has commanded is very relaxed.
Despite acknowledging that the price Manchester United agreed for his services is, in his words, crazy, the young forward has noted that the price is largely arbitrary. Is he worth the €80 million Manchester United put forward? Anthony Martial says he doesn’t know, but the price tag doesn’t cause him to feel any particular pressure.
One of the major factors in Anthony Martial’s calm, despite the heyday happening around him, is his ‘bubble’. This nebulous term can be associated with his family, something that he appears to hold very close to his heart.
Anthony Martial openly admitted that the massive transfer offer lodged by Manchester United made his family nervous over lofty expectations due to the high price Manchester United were willing to pay.
That being said, he has stated that he is committed to staying focused on training and proving his worth at Manchester United.
‘He loves staying in and being with his family. It doesn’t look like he’ll be raising hell once he moves to Manchester’ (Source: Daily Mail)
Anthony Martial’s ‘bubble’ will undoubtedly make that commitment easier for him. A 19-year-old family man, Anthony Martial has admitted to being something of a homebody. He prefers staying in after training and matches, he enjoys home cooked meals, undisturbed walks with his wife, playing video games, and watching television.
Anthony Martial has an infant daughter; he’s a husband; and his wife is currently pregnant with their second child. The Sun quoted a source close to Martial saying that his life is the opposite of the glamorous title he currently espouses. ‘He loves staying in and being with his family. It doesn’t look like he’ll be raising hell once he moves to Manchester’.
Provided he performs well for Manchester United, Anthony Martial’s four year contract may provide him with all he needs to thrive. Given his relaxed lifestyle off the pitch, a home in Manchester for his wife and kids may be all that is required. A place for his personal ‘bubble’ to settle permanently, a place of respite from the daily tumult of the Premier League, a country which has a more relaxed atmosphere for famous footballers, and a place where he can enjoy his Mothers cooking – something he apparently missed when he moved from the suburbs of Paris to Monaco.
Outside of his footballing talent there’s nothing particularly spicy about Anthony Martial.
He probably won’t be caught setting his house on fire with bathroom fireworks like Mario Balotelli.
But that’s fine.
Anthony Martial is a family man who likes hanging out at home when he’s not training or working. It’s not exactly George Best material, but it’s a story that you seldom get out of young Premier League starlets with astronomically high paycheques and a plethora of potential poor decisions to make on a weekly basis.
Manchester United fans are fortunate that their newest acquisition isn’t just rifling goals in on a weekly basis, but that he seems uninterested in the trappings of being a successful player without actually being one.