As the 2016 European Championships winded down, Manchester United and France forward Anthony Martial had this epic training goal celebration (video here).
Unfortunately, all that energy went to waste on the bench as Martial didn’t see any action until the final few minutes in the title match.
The host nation and heavy favorite went on to lose to Portugal, and some fingers were naturally pointed at France Manager Didier Des Champs. Critics found flaws with several of his decisions, including the failure to bring on Martial until the very end. Many Manchester United fans were livid, or at least disappointed that Martial didn’t play more.
Others analogized Martial to Marcus Rashford, who saw the bench quite a bit with England.
Still other Red Devils supporters were happy that Martial is rested. Others made the same statement, but sarcastically. In other words, there was a huge variance in opinion on social media. Fast forwarding to today, we got the opinion of Anthony Martial himself on how his Euro experience truly was.
Martial told Telefoot: “It was a very difficult Euros.”
“We didn’t manage to win the title and the coach only played me for 45 minutes — it was pretty disastrous.
“After that I spent it on the bench, but that happens. I am young, I am going to learn from that.”
“It was the first time I had played so much for my club but that is not an excuse. I should have been better.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.