Henry Martín: “I didn’t want to leave América”
The striker admitted to having several teams interested in his services.
Henry Martín is enjoying his football again. The Club América striker is plugging away at an important part of the year with the aim of getting called up for the 2022 World Cup with Mexico. The road to rediscovering form was not easy to the extent that he admitted to stopping enjoying football.
In an interview with ESPN, the striker acknowledged that there were possibilities of leaving Coapa, but his desire was to continue at América. “It was very doubtful (a transfer), because I didn’t want to move from here. My representatives called me and told me that there is this. In that market, there was interest in me. I prefer to stay with a big team. Chivas is a big team, one of the big four, and if I have to move I prefer that to go who knows where. I said I don’t want to move,” he said.
Although these possibilities existed, Martín explains that the board of América never spoke to him to inform him of anything concrete. All this generated more pressure: “It generates pressure, because I didn’t want to leave, I wanted to stay. The president and Diego Ramirez (sporting director) never approached me to tell me that there was an option. I saw everything from the outside and I wondered if it was true,” he sa
Stopped enjoying football
Four goals in the entire Clausura 2022 caused criticism, a situation that led Martín to stop enjoying football. He says those days were not easy, but the key is confidence.
“You have to trust in what you know, know that you know how to do your job and that’s it. It’s confidence, enjoy it. I’m enjoying it and being in this team, the higher you get the more pressure and demand there is and you can stop enjoying something you did as a kid for fun, which is something you chose and no one forced you to do. You lose that part and when you talk to a psychologist and stay focused, that part of the enjoyment comes back. I slept, but I didn’t rest for 8 or 10 hours,” he said.
The 29-year-old striker is currently in contention to be the top scorer in the 2022 Apertura. The Mexico international has eight goals and is one behind Pachuca’s Nicolás Ibañez, who leads the way with nine.