Luis Martinez

Twelve seasons on a roster rarely leave much of a mark on the record books, but Luis Martínez's file at Club Guaraní has one unusual entry: a moment in a match against Nacional on 19 October 2023 when he raised his hand mid-play to signal that the ball had crossed the line before an opponent's goal. The assistant kept his flag down, the referee waved play on, and the goal stood. It is the kind of split-second protest that says more about a player's read of the game than any pass completion chart.

Martínez, born in Paraguay, has spent his career largely in Guaraní's orbit, stepping away twice on loan to sharpen his game elsewhere. In 2022 he joined 12 de Octubre, where he scored the only goal of his senior career to date, before returning to Guaraní. A second loan followed in 2024, this time at Sportivo Ameliano. Between those spells, he has been part of Guaraní squads that reached the runner-up spot in Paraguay's top flight in the Clausura tournaments of 2020, 2021 and 2024 — three finals, three times falling just short of the title.

He has not featured for the Paraguay national team, and no individual honours from other clubs appear on his record. What stands out instead is the pattern of a player trusted enough at Guaraní to be loaned out for game time and brought back, rather than moved on for good — and a single, sharply remembered gesture on a pitch in 2023 that no scoresheet will ever record.