LAFC’s exit from the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup at the hands of reigning LIGA MX kings Toluca on Wednesday night has left a bruising impression on fans, as well as the team.
Take a quick spin through your social-media platform of choice, and the frustration is evident – with one theme notable among several posts.
“Free David Martínez.”
“Martínez should’ve started,” reads one supporter’s post in the wake of the 4-0 loss in the thin air of Estadio Nemesio Díez.
“You got one of the best players in this tourney in Martínez sitting on the bench,” laments another.
“Bouanga-Son-Martínez no questions asked…” declares another, advocating for an attacking trident of the Black & Gold’s three most prolific goal contributors this season.
“No Martínez, no party."
Breakout season
It’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback, or in this case, Thursday morning playmaker, after a high-profile setback that demands a positive response when Houston Dynamo FC visit BMO Stadium for Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire this weekend (9 pm ET | Apple TV).
What’s more striking is the extent to which Martínez has won over the LAFC faithful as his third season in Los Angeles unfolds, with his 20th birthday just a few months behind him.
Those tantalizing glimpses of potential he flashed early in his MLS adventure are now becoming a regular thing. La Joya (The Jewel), as he was dubbed back home in Venezuela during his adolescent years, has already bagged 3g/2a in 10 league appearances and another four goals in CCC play – most of them spectacular – providing a potent threat alongside superstars Son Heung-Min and Denis Bouanga.
“I feel like I’ve been more mature,” Martínez said in Spanish after scoring the lone goal during a 1-0 win over FC Dallas in March. “My confidence has been growing, and I’ve been taking every opportunity and every game as the team has gone better.”
When 75,673 spectators – one of the biggest crowds in MLS history – packed into the LA Coliseum to watch LAFC host defending MLS Cup presented by Audi champions Inter Miami on opening weekend, it wasn’t a Lionel Messi golazo they were treated to, but a silky-smooth strike from Martínez to spark a rousing 3-0 rout for the home team.
“This year [he] is going to be more offensive,” said Bouanga postgame, “because he plays this position, he likes this position, and we need to push him in the field, because he has some kind of quality that’s too strong. But now he’s changed his mentality too, because last year is not the same as this year and he knows.”
When the Black & Gold broke open a tense CCC quarterfinal first-leg clash with Mexican giants Cruz Azul last month, it wasn’t Bouanga who grabbed the mantle. It was Martínez, reeling off two highlight-reel goals to bank a 3-0 victory that proved sufficient for advancement, the first a particularly jaw-dropping solo dribble past Mexican international defender Erik Lira.
Afterwards, LAFC head coach Marc Dos Santos upped the ante even further, urging his young phenom to aim for the very loftiest heights this sport has to offer.
“There’s a side of his game offensively that reminds me of the UEFA Champions League,” said the Canadian coach. “Sometimes he bothers me, because I know he can be here all the time, but he just sometimes relaxes and you also see that throughout the 90 minutes.
“I always tell him, ‘Buddy, you can be a millionaire. You can make so much money.’ But look, good for him. I’m here to help him. I want him to progress. I’m always going to be on him in other sides of the game that I think he needs to grow at.”
Generational talent
If that sounds like breathless hype to you, be aware that it’s a mere fraction of what La Joya has been living with since childhood.
Labeled the best Venezuelan player of his generation by The Guardian, which three years ago ranked him among the world’s top 2006-born prospects, he made his first-team debut at Monagas SC when he was 16 – and in Conmebol’s vaunted Copa Libertadores, no less.
He earned his first senior international cap with La Vinotinto not long after, after starring for the youth national teams at one age level after another, unlocking defenses with pace, guile and a deadly shooting range.
It helped him that his older brother, Esteban, was already a professional player and one of his teammates at Monagas, part of a family support structure that seems to have kept him grounded.
“They always called me La Joya, but my family and my brother always taught me that I wasn't a jewel, that I was just like the rest,” Martínez told his countryman Michele Giannone of Apple TV in a 2025 sitdown.
“And I think that's true. I'm just like any other player. It was never like that for me. In fact, I never liked being called La Joya. Sometimes my friends would call me La Joya, and I didn't like it. I never believed any of that, and always worked to the fullest.”
Chasing dreams
With the likes of Ajax Amsterdam and Borussia Dortmund also in pursuit, LAFC’s staff considered it a coup when they recruited him for a sizeable U22 Initiative transfer in February 2024. Yet a steep learning curve in a distant land inevitably complicated Martínez’s efforts to live up to lofty expectations from the jump.
He’d gotten a taste of that process when he joined Monagas, located nearly 200 kilometers away from his hometown of San José de Guanipa. Moving to Southern California was a magnitude more daunting; however, he had to adapt to everything on and off the pitch, living on his own thousands of miles from his family in a bustling megalopolis while political instability and economic deprivation continued to plague his homeland.
“Huge credit to David, honestly. I think we don’t realize how difficult it is for a kid like him,” said his Spanish teammate Sergi Palencia after the Cruz Azul win. “He’s a kid, came here two, three years ago alone – alone in Los Angeles without knowing the language, with Venezuela what is happening; he has family there. And he struggled a little bit at the beginning.
“But he was still working, working, working, and I think the veterans, the guys that are here who have a longer career, have to help him and to show support to him. It’s what we are doing. We just want him to have fun, to enjoy, to know that he has a family here. And we want him to do the best that he can – and his ceiling is absolutely incredible. He’s an unbelievable player and a very, very good kid.”
Full steam ahead
As with many U22 signings, both Martínez and his club envision him eventually making a big move overseas. An avowed FC Barcelona fan, he’s expressed interest in testing himself in Spain or England someday.
But as much as falling short of the CCC final stings, LAFC have plenty more hardware to chase, and their current position of fourth in the overall MLS standings on 21 points (6W-2L-3D) while juggling a draining continental competition underlines their talent.
Guided onward by Dos Santos & Co., Martínez figures to be a vital cog in all of it.
“It’s not just the confidence shown by Marc, but by the entire coaching staff – and the players – who, despite my age, trust in me and know what I can contribute to the team,” Martínez said last week. “And that is very important to me because it allows me to perform at my best, you know?
“Regarding the transfer market, that’s not something I’m thinking about, to be honest. Right now I’m here, and I’m making the most of every match I get to play to give it my absolute best.”
