Venezuelan Josef Martinez opens up on move to Inter Miami, love of Doral and arepas

Josef “El Rey” Martinez was officially introduced as the newest member of Inter Miami on Wednesday morning, but the Venezuelan forward and former MLS MVP is hardly a newcomer to South Florida.

In his first public comments since his highly publicized move from Atlanta United, Martinez told the Herald that his girlfriend, two-month-old son, and more than half his friends live in Doral. He spends most of his vacations in Miami and had been in Doral since his son was born in November. He is delighted he will get to dine more often at one of his favorite restaurants, Kamiko Sushi Bar in Doral.

Martinez will also get to load up on arepas at Pepito’s Arepa Bar in Doral and Pepito’s Plaza on Brickell, which are celebrating his arrival by serving limited-edition pink “Rey Pepiado” arepas with a custom Martinez logo, a twist on the traditional Reina (queen) Pepiada that comes topped with yellow cheese.

Martinez added that the large Venezuelan community, the recent birth of his son, and his familiarity with the area were major factors in his decision to choose Inter Miami over other suitors.

“Doral is practically Venezuela,” Martinez said. “I have been here many times with the Venezuelan national team and on vacation and now I have the chance to be near my son. It will be an honor and pleasure to play in front of the Venezuelan community here. I know the commute form Doral to the stadium is a little far, but we want to have a lot of Venezuelan flags at the games, and I hope the Venezuelan community gets more involved with the club and helps us win games and trophies.”

With the retirement of leading scorer Gonzalo Higuain after the 2022 season, Inter Miami was in the market for a prolific scorer. They found their man in Martinez, a 29-year-old lethal striker who scored 77 goals in 83 games his first three seasons with Atlanta and was named MLS MVP and MLS Cup MVP in 2018.

He missed all but one game of the 2020 season with a torn ACL and remained the team’s top scorer with 21 goals the past two seasons.

Martinez, the league’s 12th-highest paid player at $4.1 million last season, had one year left on his contract but his relationship with the club and first-year manager Gonzalo Pineda had deteriorated and they opted to move in a different direction. Atlanta exercised a buyout, and Miami will retain a portion of Martínez’s guaranteed contract on its 2023 club salary budget.

“With Gonzalo retiring, that was a big void, a lot of goals to replace and we felt like Josef could give us a proven goal scorer in our league,” said Inter Miami sporting director Chris Henderson. “Atlanta’s change is an opportunity for us, and we took full advantage of it. I’m thrilled we’re at this point now of bringing him here and having him contribute. With Leo Campana and Josef Martinez up front, it’s going to be a real handful for defenders in our league.”

Henderson said Martinez’s off-field contribution is also significant.

“With the Venezuelan community, we think he’s going to be a big catalyst in having fans come out and support him and our club and keep building the momentum we built last year,” Henderson said.

The club is welcoming Martinez with graffiti in Wynwood and a billboard in Doral that both say: “Hablame, Miami. Josef llego.” (Speak to me, Miami. Josef arrived.) He will be introduced to fans at halftime of Saturday’s preseason game against Brazilian club Vasco da Gama at DRV PNK Stadium.

Martinez, who will wear No. 17, was born and raised in Valencia, Venezuela. In a 2018 article he wrote for The Players Tribune, he said of his hometown: “Valencia, our city, is the most wonderful place in the world — I promise. If you ever get a chance to visit, you should definitely go. It’s not far from the Caribbean Sea and we’re right on Lago de Valencia, a great lake to be around in the summertime.”

His grandparents, who moved to Venezuela from Colombia, helped raise him. His grandfather was a bricklayer who instilled in Josef his love of soccer. His grandmother worked in a bodega beneath their home.

“La Bodega de la Señora Andrea....It was a beautiful little shop,” he wrote. “Our home was on the corner of a fairly busy street, so lots of families would come by the store and pick up fruit, snacks and other things they needed. My grandmother would be there all day, chatting away with people, music from the radio always on in the background. I can still picture it, so clearly, to this day.”

In 2012, at 19 years old, he was signed by Swiss team Young Boys. Two years later he left for Torino in the Italian league, where he spent three seasons before joining Atlanta in 2017.

Martinez is highly motivated to take Inter Miami to new heights while proving he can still be among the league’s top scorers.

“Since I’ve been in the league, I have faced Inter Miami four or five times, and I see them as a new team that is improving and trying to put its imprint on the league,” he said. “I know how difficult it is for a team starting from scratch. They are trying to reach important goals. My job is to score a lot of goals. I hope we can win trophies and make a mark together.”

Martinez had become the face of Atlanta United, was known as “El Rey” (The King) and admitted it pained him to leave.

“After being in a place so long, so many special moments that we lived together, that is what was most difficult for me in leaving Atlanta and what I will remember more than the negative times and my injuries,” he said. “The last two months were very hard for me, especially because my son was born premature. But he is fine now, which is most important.

“I am extremely grateful for the club and fans. We celebrated many victories together. But you always have to look forward. This is futbol and nothing is forever. The most important thing is that I am healthy and that I have new possibilities and this opportunity to wear a new shirt.”

Henderson, a former MLS and U.S. national team striker, knows what it takes to excel at that position. He said Martinez has all the necessary qualities.

“He’s very good at occupying the space between central defenders,” Henderson said. “He gets into spaces where they sometimes don’t know where he’s at. He has explosive pace and is lethal in the box. When there’s opportunities, he pounces on loose balls, gets in really good positions. He can score in multiple ways. With both feet, his head.

“He just causes a lot of problems, and you can tell he just loves scoring goals. He is a winner. To have a player with that talent who knows the league, that’s hard to find.”

The only knock on Martinez is his reputation as a temperamental player who has had run-ins with previous bosses.

He was suspended for a week last season after a shouting match with Pineda, who said the suspension was for several incidents of behavior detrimental to the team.

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Martinez also had a public spat with former Venezuela manager Rafael Dudamel and clashed with former Atlanta coach Gabriel Heinze, who made Martinez train on his own during a stretch of the 2021 season.

Inter Miami coach Phil Neville is not worried about Martinez’s behavior, saying he and his players will integrate him into the team’s united culture.

“What I always say to people who challenge me on that is ‘That person can do X, Y, Z. Leave the management of that player to me. That is my job. That is what I am paid to do,’’’ Neville said. “I think what we have seen over the last two years is that we have had to manage a lot of big personalities. I think Gonzalo (Higuain) is a prime example of getting the best out of someone that probably was not going right and then finished on such a high note. I back my ability to deal with any kind of player.”

Asked about his disagreements with prior coaches, Martinez chalked them up to his ultra-competitive nature.

“Everyone wants to win, I want to win, and sometimes you have disagreements,” he said. “You’re not always going to agree with everyone all the time. As long as you win as a group and have harmony in the locker room, it works. Phil (Neville) was a player, so he understands...Phil was the person who insisted the most that I come and that is why I ended up here. We established a good relationship. He was very honest. He was a big piece of why I am here.”

Henderson said he is not concerned about Martinez’s prickly past.

“He’s motivated,” Henderson said. “Phil, from what I’ve seen, is so good at working with players and getting them motivated to play for the team, so not a concern at all...I look forward to introducing him to our fans and hope all the Venezuelans come out to welcome him.”

Tickets for Saturday’s game are available at intermiamicf.com