From 42 million man to Christian rapper

Jackson Martinez was one of the top scorers in Europe. Now he’s embarking on a rather unusual second career. The striker of yore is now a Christian rapper.

In 2012, at the age of 25, Martinez made the leap to Europe. At his previous clubs Independiente Medellin (Colombia) and Jaguares de Chiapas (Mexico), the 1.88-metre-tall forward stood out for one thing in particular – scoring goals.

FC Porto took the striker for eight million euros and gave him a four-year contract. At the top Portuguese club, where many a player from South America started their European career, he should follow in the footsteps of his compatriot Rademel Falcao. And Martinez quickly proved that these are not too big for him.

He scored 31 goals in his first season at FC Porto in all competitions. In the Portuguese league he was top scorer, as he was in the next two years. It goes without saying that many top European clubs wanted such a goal machine: Manchester United, Arsenal FC – but Atletico Madrid was awarded the contract. Martinez moved to the Primera Division for 35 million.

After a good start at the Rojiblancos with two goals in the first two league games, the Colombia international injured his ankle. After that, he had a hard time getting back into the starting XI. The consequence: A move in February 2016 to the Chinese league, which was only throwing money around at the time, to Guangzhou Evergrande – for 42 million euros.

Jackson Martinez: First the faith, then the music

But Martinez was not happy in China either. Injuries kept throwing him back. He played a total of 16 games for Guangzhou until 2018.

During the most difficult period of his career, Martinez found support in his Christian faith and his second passion – music. He combined both and released an album with seven Christian hip-hop songs in September 2018. The name of the album: “No Temere”, in German “Don’t worry”.

“At a critical moment in my career, when I had two surgeries and two years off the court, I turned to writing a little more and made the decision to release an album,” Martinez said We will about his motivations.

At that time he was on loan from Guangzhou to the Portuguese first division club SC Portimonense, who then signed him on for a year in 2019. Although there was some improvement for Martinez on his second spell in Portugal (10 goals in 51 games), he was without a club as of summer 2020. Four months later, at the age of 34, he finally ended his career.

However, his career as a Christian hip-hop artist continued. He released more tracks in no particular order. On July 1 of this year, his last title premiered: “Poco Tiempo” (Eng.: Short-term).

“You’re looking for something worthwhile, but you see that nothing lasts forever,” is a line of text that can also be applied to his football career, which was ultimately halted by injuries at the height of his work.

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