The 40-year-old forward, born in Barcelona but of origins in Alcal del Río (Seville), has just announced his retirement from professional basketball after two decades in which he only lacked one thing
the eaves Rafael Martinezwho has just announced his retirement at the age of 40 after nineteen seasons in the ACB, acknowledged this Saturday that he “There will always be the thorn of not having been able to play for Real Betis”of whose soccer team he is a fervent fan.
“I always imagined myself playing in Seville, the land of my parents, a land that I also consider mine, but it is something that did not depend on one and could not be. With the denomination of Cajasol there were contacts. My agent knew that it was an option that I liked, but it could not come to fruition,” said Rafa Martínez in an interview with the EFE agency.
The Catalan player had “The dream of playing for Betis alongside Joaquín, an idol. The two with the ’17’but it couldn’t be” because “in this life, you can’t have everything”, although he insisted that “it would have been a beautiful and incredible ending” to his sports career.
The Barcelona basketball player, whose family is from Alcalá del Río (Seville)branded “fantastic year” the one experienced by the Verdiblanco team, which in his opinion has been, “Real Madrid aside, the best national team” this season and which practices “a similar game, with great touch, to that of Serra Ferrer in his first stage“.
Rafa Martínez had Cup final tickets won by the Betis against Valencia on April 23 but he was left “with the desire to go to La Cartuja”, although as “betic in the distance”, he enjoyed “a lot of the title. “Let’s see if they reach another final to enjoy it. The Super Cup would be good, but Arabia is very far away”, he commented.
The fourth highest triple jumper in the history of the ACB considered “complicated to take stock of so many years of career. I knew that sooner or later the goodbye would come, although I did not expect it to come at home -BAXI Manresa- and at 40 years old, since it is lucky to retire where one has been raised” .
Rafa Martínez has only played for three clubs in almost two decades, which “explains why people feel so identified” with him, although he pointed out that “if there is something missing” in his career, it is that he “would have liked to be international more often “, despite can boast of having “formed part of the best team in history”.
