“If I gave you €100,” I ask Roberto Martinez, “would you bet it on [Romelu] Lukaku for the Ballon d’Or?”
“I would split €50 for Romelu Lukaku and €50 for Kevin De Bruyne,” he says without missing a beat. “I think both, in their roles, they've been the best in world football. So I hope that they can get the rewards that they deserve.”
Martinez is the coach of Belgium, the No.1-ranked team in the world for the past three years. Lukaku has just won the Italian Serie A title and De Bruyne the Premier League, with each regarded as among the best players on the planet in their positions.
If Belgium are going to win Euro 2020, in which they play Italy in Friday’s quarter-final in Munich, then Lukaku and De Bruyne will have something to do with it.
Lukaku, in particular, has come of age. Cast aside by Manchester United two years ago, the forward has transformed himself into one of the game’s most lethal marksmen.
He has already scored three times in four matches at the Euros, including Belgium’s first goal of the tournament. That was scored in Saint Petersburg, barely a couple of hours after Lukaku’s Inter team-mate Christian Eriksen collapsed while playing for Denmark against Finland. He dedicated the goal to his club colleague.
“It shows you the person that Romelu is,” Martinez tells Goal from Tubize, where Belgian football’s High Performance Centre is located. “He is a caring person. There are values that are more important than just winning or losing and how you go about winning is the way we live life.
“And I think it was a wonderful moment that Romelu Lukaku just said: ‘The importance of that moment was that Christian was fine’. And we wanted to celebrate with him.”
Martinez, while coaching Everton, signed Lukaku for a club-record fee of £28 million ($39m) when he was still a teenager. He is, he admits, “a bit biased” when it comes to assessing Lukaku’s abilities because he’s “got a strong affection for him”.
“We're talking about a Romelu Lukaku that is more than a goalscorer since he moved to Inter,” he says of the country’s top scorer. “He arrived at the right club, at the right time, with the right coach [Antonio Conte] and has developed this incredible maturity.
“That is not just the goalscorer that we all know. He is someone that can affect the game, he can affect players around him. He can really really influence what you're going to do on the pitch.
“He is still 28, the goalscoring records are amazing, but I think Romelu Lukaku has become a very mature footballer in the last 14 months.”
De Bruyne, Belgium’s other truly world-class player, is “lucky” to still be with the squad, Martinez admits.
Later in the same game, Martinez’s captain, Eden Hazard, felt a sadly familiar twinge in his hamstring and also had to be replaced.
“The aftermath was very positive,” Martinez says of the injuries nonetheless, “because we felt that it could be a possibility that both players would be out of the tournament, and that's been confirmed that's not the case.
“Obviously we play on Friday, and that could be very close for both players to be available, but medically they can stay in the group and they can carry on working.
“In the case of Kevin, I must admit, Kevin was very, very lucky in that in that challenge. It could have been a lot worse.”
De Bruyne had come into the tournament carrying a different injury, having suffered a fractured nose and eye socket in the Champions League final while playing for Manchester City against Chelsea.
He sat out the first match against Russia, as did fellow veteran Axel Witsel, while Hazard was fit enough only for the bench, but all were summoned for the second game against Denmark in Copenhagen.
“I felt we arrived at the tournament at that point,” Martinez says of the 2-1 victory enjoyed by his team against the Danes, who were on an emotional rollercoaster after the loss of Eriksen from their squad.
“I’ve never, ever experienced anything like it,” Martinez says of experiencing Eriksen’s collapse. “We were watching the game and we were five minutes away from going to our team meeting. It felt irrelevant to play football at that point.
“The important aspect is we wanted to know how Christian was reacting and we needed news from Copenhagen. And it was probably 20 minutes later that we got the good news that Christian reacted and he started talking.
“At that point, we felt we could go forward with a game. Otherwise it was difficult. There were players that shared a dressing room with Christian.”
When they met a few days later, Denmark were playing at home against Belgium, an advantage that has been available to a select few teams at this tournament due to UEFA’s decision to play this 60th-anniversary edition of the European Championship all around the continent, Covid-notwithstanding.
“You're looking at the opportunity that England have of being able to play six games out of the seven in Wembley,” he observes. “It makes it a very, very different tournament than when you have to travel around.
“But hopefully we are seeing the end of this pandemic attack. And we can all celebrate with one of the best aspects that we have in life, which is the game.”
While Belgium are on the road for the most part - having played in Russia, Denmark and Spain so far - their base in Tubize is homely.
“We’ve got a lot of different corners,” the manager says. “Players can watch a game, they’ve got their spaces, they like to play cards and just just share whatever they feel like, and it is becoming a beautiful atmosphere. And you get a real feeling whether the team wants to stay longer or not.”
A big favourite is Teqball, a kind of tennis/football crossover game. “That's something that the players enjoy,” Martinez smiles. “When the weather allows it, we enjoy a good outdoor Teqball tournament.
“I think Yannick Carrasco is always up there, Leandro Trossard is always a big competitor," he says when asked who the Teqball champions might be. "It is a great way to work on your technique.”
Having seen off the threat of Ronaldo and the potential of a record-breaking 110th international goal - “We were just relieved and delighted that it wasn't that time,” Martinez says of shutting out the legendary Portugal forward - attentions now turn to Italy and another familiar foe.
Roberto Mancini, the Italy manager, was in charge of Manchester City when Martinez presided over one of the biggest shocks of English football history - Wigan Athletic’s 2013 FA Cup final victory over City.
“Maybe he doesn't even remember!,” jokes Martinez of that encounter, but then notes that the Italian is one of the most “meticulous” coaches in the game.
“What Roberto Mancini has done with Italy is an example,” he says. “Thirty one games undefeated, that just shows you the real work. Whoever plays, they know exactly what they need to do. I can't speak highly enough of the work that Robert Mancini has done with Italy.”
And so while Lukaku, De Bruyne and other household names in the Belgium squad gear up to go a step further than they did at World Cup 2018, where they were defeated in the semi-finals by France, Martinez is aware that now is the time to cement their legacy.
“This generation is affecting the next two or three generations in the future,” he says of his players. “They are setting real standards for young players that are coming through.
“This generation deserves silverware for their legacy. I think that this group of players deserves that in 50 years, 60 years, people talk about these players as the players that brought silverware to Belgian football.
“Knowing them, the way they work and the way they care, they deserve it.”
