Thiago Martinez

The first round of the 2025 Torneo Clausura, away to Banfield on 14 July, gave Thiago Martínez his first appearance for the Defensa y Justicia senior side. He had been on the bench once already that year, named in the squad for the March fixture against Estudiantes de La Plata, and the step up followed a season in which he had been training with the first team.

Martínez came through the club's own inferiores , the youth structure at Defensa y Justicia. Born in Buenos Aires in July 2007, he plays in midfield.

Most of his football has been in the reserve competition. Through the 2025/26 campaign he has been a regular for Defensa y Justicia II in the Copa de la Liga Profesional Reserva, listed among the side's leading scorers, and by the midpoint of the season he had made 15 appearances at that level. In the 2025 Apertura stage of the tournament he scored three times — a return that put him among those the coaching staff could look to when the senior squad needed filling out.

What the senior record amounts to beyond the Banfield match is harder to pin down; detailed minutes and goals for the first team in competitive fixtures are not set out in the public record.

For now his football is split between two levels — the reserve fixtures where he plays and scores, and the senior bench, where he has begun to appear.