Roger Martinez: The ice-cold Colombian flying at Al Taawoun
Roger Martinez: The ice-cold Colombian flying at Al Taawoun Cast your eye past Ivan Toney, Julian Quinones and Cristiano Ronaldo at the top of the Roshn Saudi League top-scorer listings , and the next name you’ll come to is Roger Martinez. The in-form Colombian is hot on the heels of that star-studded, three-way fight for the 2025-26 golden boot, with five goals in his past six games taking him past the 20-goal milestone for the first time in his career. And, in doing it at Al Taawoun, Martinez is proving that you don’t need to be plying your trade for a title-chasing club to thrive in the RSL.
Recruited in the winter transfer window of last year, the formidable forward’s move from Argentina’s Racing Club generated less fanfare than that of compatriot Jhon Duran. The then-Aston Villa frontman signed for Al Nassr around the same time, to global acclaim . But it’s the 31-year-old Martinez who has undoubtedly made the greatest impact.
Concluding last season with a respectable five goals in 18 RSL matches, he has exploded this term with the guidance of returning Al Taawoun manager, Pericles Chamusca . Finding the net 20 times in 25 appearances, and adding two assists to his 2025-26 record, Martinez’s might has propelled the Buraidah outfit to the brink of another top-five finish . The slightly less-heralded arrival in the Kingdom may be a function of Martinez spending most of his professional career in South America, besides a brief-but-prolific period in East Asia that included, in fact, a short loan spell in Spain with Villarreal.
Emerging from the youth set-up at Racing Club in Buenos Aires, it’s with La Academia that Martinez has enjoyed his most notable success to date, winning the 2024 Copa Sudamericana - the continent’s second-most prestigious trophy - having come back to the club after eight years in China and Mexico combined. As one of the hottest properties emerging from South America in the mid-2010s, he had joined the Chinese football revolution at its peak, in 2016, when signing for the now-defunct Jiangsu Suning. It was at this time that China seemed set to re-shape the global football landscape.
While that reality quickly faded, Martinez found a new home with Club America, the grandest and most decorated club in Mexico. It was there that something of a connection was created between Martinez and another of this season’s golden-boot contenders, Quinones . Although, like Martinez born in Colombia, the Al Qadsiah hotshot represents Mexico at international level.
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