Williams Martínez

Defensor and West Browmwich

Born in Montevideo and the holder of an Italian passport, Martínez began his professional career at Defensor Sporting, where he became captain. On 31 January 2006, he moved to Premier League team West Bromwich Albion on loan for the rest of the season with the option to make it permanent. Manager Bryan Robson, who signed him on the recommendation of former Uruguay international striker Daniel Fonseca, hoped that Martínez would be as good as fellow West Brom centre-back Curtis Davies. Martínez made his West Brom debut on 11 February 2006 in a 6–1 loss at Fulham, coming on at half time as a substitute for Thomas Gaardsøe; he received a yellow card in the game, and afterwards, manager Robson called the entire defence "shocking". His only other game was a start away at Everton in which he scored to put his team 2–0 up, but also conceded a penalty with a late foul on Mikel Arteta, from which Duncan Ferguson scored the equaliser in a 2–2 draw.

Valenciennes

In January 2008, Martínez returned to Europe on a 21⁄2-year deal at Valenciennes FC of the French Ligue 1, for a fee of €1.2 million. On his debut on 12 January, the team won 2–0 at home to AS Saint-Étienne. In his final game on 23 February, he and Le Mans FC player Anthony Le Tallec were sent off for fighting in a brawl that started when Valenciennes' Steve Savidan scored while Le Mans' Romaric was lying injured; Le Mans won 2–1 away. For the 2008–09 season, Martínez was loaned to…

Martínez played one game for Uruguay national team on 4 February 2003 at the Lunar New Year Cup. Accompanying Diego Lugano in central defence, the team drew 1–1 in the final against Iran in Hong Kong before winning 4–2 in a penalty shootout.