The history of Hollywood by Robert Martínez and the Three Amigos

Torelló"My story is one to be filmed in Hollywood," Robert Martínez once said. He was born in Balaguer and currently coaches Portugal, Spain's opponent this Monday in the World Cup round of 16 (9 p.m., La 1). Between that beginning and the present day, there are some incredible chapters, like an American movie.

His father was a footballer from Zaragoza who arrived in Balaguer chasing the ball and stayed there forever. He found Love there, his wife, and over the years opened a shoe shop. His son, a footballer by inheritance, retraced his steps and at sixteen left alone for Zaragoza. He debuted with the first team in the First Division in 1992, at the Calderón. "In 1994, our contract in the reserve team ended and he asked me if I wanted to go with him to Balaguer. At first I hesitated, but I said yes," assures Isidro Díaz (Valencia, 1972), a fellow adventurer. Díaz settled in the Hotel Balaguer, but soon moved to the Martínez family's apartment at the insistence of Martínez's parents. He had his own room. "I was like another son. His mother was an incredible cook," recalls Díaz. They set the table and sometimes went shopping.

Life changed for them forever on Thursday, June 29, 1995. That day they lost the Federation Cup final against Las Palmas' reserve team, against a young Juan Carlos Valerón. Nobody knew it, but in the stands there was an English gentleman. He was the coach of Wigan Athletic. He had traveled to Balaguer, who knows how, to see them in situ and validate an offer for them: two players from the Third Division. The billionaire Dave Whelan had bought Wigan. At that time, the club was also struggling in the fourth English tier, but Whelan planned to take it to the Premier League in a few years. He had an empire of sports clothing stores (JBB) that had reached Spain with four points of sale: Barcelona, Madrid, Mallorca, and Zaragoza. His right-hand man in Spain was a certain Paul Hodges. He was a man who knew Díaz and Martínez, and also Jesús Seba, another player, from their time in Zaragoza, and he proposed the three signings to Whelan. They had never heard the name Wigan, neither the city nor the club.

"It was the same category, but the economic conditions were very good and the project convinced us because it was very ambitious – he explains–. The internet did not yet exist and we had to look for the city on a paper map. We only knew it was between Manchester and Liverpool. We threw ourselves into the adventure without knowing what we would find". They arrived in Wigan on July 25th. That day it was sunny and they told their families that the weather there was not so different either. At that moment, England seemed and was another world. Today, the Premier League is about to exceed 200 Spanish players throughout history, but at that time there was only one precedent: Nayim, formerly of Zaragoza and also of Barça.

Adapting to England, quite an odyssey

Díaz says he couldn't even say hello. Martínez had some knowledge of English, but not much either: "One day when the coach finished speaking, I asked Robert what he had said. 'Nothing, I get the ball, you make a run, and I'll pass it to you.'" They were housed at the Wrightington Hotel, each in a room. And after a few months, they were relocated to a house in Whelan. Life was "very, very different." The pre-match meal was often beans on toast with a cup of tea. "We were told that the tradition is for players to wear suits and ties. The first day we arrived at the bus, everyone was in tracksuits. The next day we dressed in tracksuits, and when we arrived, everyone was in suits. The tradition was suits for home games and tracksuits for away games," he smiles.

They were nicknamed the Three Amigos in honor of a 1986 film about three Mexicans, even though none of the three had any connection to Mexico beyond the Spanish language. They were from Aragon, Lleida, and Valencia. They were even photographed wearing Mexican hats. "We were wetting ourselves laughing. They started selling Mexican hats at the stadium, and there were them everywhere. I suppose they thought Spain and Mexico were the same thing," he says. The club lent them a Ford Escort with the inscription Three Amigos on the side for transportation. Everyone knew where they lived because they parked in front of the house. Sometimes someone would ring the doorbell, and they would be invited for a tea or coffee.

"It was a team that had never achieved anything, and suddenly three Spaniards joining was a boom for the whole city. They weren't reaching 2,000 fans, and suddenly attendance doubled," adds Díaz. In his first year, Martínez was already the top scorer and MVP. In his debut in the English Cup, he scored a goal from a Díaz pass and celebrated it with a bullfighter's step while laughing, to complete the caricature. He became a legend and was recognized as the best footballer in the club's history.

Wigan finally reached the Premier League in 2005. Martínez returned to the city as manager in 2009 and guided them to achieve one of the most beautiful feats in modern English football: in 2013, they won the cup against the mighty Manchester City, against Yaya Touré, Silva, Tévez, Agüero, and company.

Then he coached for Everton and the Belgian national team and now manages Portugal. Many years have passed, but he and the other two friends are still well remembered in Wigan. "It's the best experience I've had. I would go back with my eyes closed, without a doubt. It's impossible to forget all that," Díaz emphasizes with a smile. On a fan blog, they even ask for a statue for the Three Amigos.