Spaniard Roberto Martinez holds a news conference after he was appointed as head coach of the Belgium national soccer team in Brussels, August 4, 2016. “But we have to remember he is 23”, said Martinez.
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Martinez joins the Red Devils after almost three months out of work. Instead, it appears he has made a decision to move onto the worldwide stage.
Martinez’s first competitive fixture in charge of the immensely-talented team will take place on 6 September when Belgium are in Cyprus for a World Cup qualifier.
He took Swansea into the Championship before accepting the opportunity to take over Premier League Wigan in 2009.
With the Toffees, Martinez experienced great early success.
Lukaku has been a man in the spotlight this summer with the Everton striker being heavily linked with a return to Chelsea, but the Belgian became the talk of social media for an altogether different reason. That would prove to be the pinnacle of his time on Merseyside.
He maintained that it was realistic to hope that they can fulfil their potential and said the players had to be able to deal with that expectation in order to enjoy their football for the national team.
He was finally fired in the final week of last season and ultimately replaced by Ronald Koeman.
Martinez, who wants to meet all the Belgian players in advance and has not decided who should be captain, said the match feels like “destiny”.
They are so good, in fact, that Federation Internationale de Football Association now rates them as the second-best national team in the world behind only Lionel Messi’s Argentina. “We won two of our last 11 games”.
Martinez will be reunited with the likes of Romelu Lukaku and Kevin Miralles.
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Mirallas, on the other hand, seemed to have a strained relationship with the coach.
When asked where the players could improve, Martinez highlighted their mentality.
“The hardest thing is to win when you are expected to win”, added Martinez, who plans to move to Belgium for the job.
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After avoiding the big guns in the bottom half of the bracket, many fancied Belgium to go on to make the finals.
