My World-Cup-winning pal, the festive sacrifices of a pro footballer and Christmas Day at Wood Towers .... Rotherham United skipper Richard Wood writes for The Advertiser

Not every player can say he’s been a teammate of a World Cup winner!

I had joined Rotherham United the previous summer when Emi Martinez came to us on loan towards the end of the 2014/15 Championship season.

He was a very nice, down-to-earth lad who just liked to have a laugh with everyone. He fitted in really well with us.

Back then, he was already a very good goalkeeper. You could see he would go on to bigger things, although maybe I wouldn’t have gone as far as predicting he would lift the World Cup with Argentina, as he has just done!

The thing I remember most about him is how he threw the ball in the air before kicking it downfield. He still does it now. He proper winds it up by chucking it up high and then launches a big side-winder.

He’s a great guy who has gone on to have a great career. It was unbelievable to watch what he did last Sunday and think that I used to share a dressing room with him.

I’ve bumped into him a couple of times since he left us and we’ve said ‘Hello’ and had a chat. He was in the Reading side when we drew 1-1 at their place in the Championship in April 2019.

Like I said, he’s a top lad, and I’m delighted for him.

What a game the final with France was, by the way. It was the best one I’ve ever seen.

I watched it at a games centre in Leeds with my eldest son, Jenson. The youngest, Graye, went round to his mate’s house.

Argentina looked comfortable at 2-0 but I said to Jenson one goal for France could change everything. And it did. Madness! 2-2, then 3-3 after a brilliant period of extra time when either side could have won it.

Argentina deserved their victory in the penalty shoot-out. Is their forward, Lionel Messi, the best of all time? It’s hard to compare players of different eras but I’d say he is.

He’s done everything. The World Cup was the only thing left for him to win.

I don’t think it’s the World Cup triumph that defines him as the best because it’s a team game. It’s the way he’s played throughout his career that sets him apart.

BAH, humbug!

The festive season simply isn’t a time of revelry for me.

As a footballer, I can’t enjoy Christmas the way most people do. There are a lot of games in a short period of time and you have to make sure you’re doing the right things off the pitch. I’ll be leaving the sherry and mince pies to Santa Claus.

I wouldn’t say it’s good, I wouldn’t say it’s bad. It’s just what I’m used to. You can’t go away, you can’t have big parties. My family are used to it as well. My kids have never known anything different. It’s not a massive deal.

Christmas Day will be a quiet one at Wood Towers. There will be no lie-in. We’ll be up early so the kids can open their presents, then we’ll have breakfast and go for a walk.

As usual, I’m cooking the dinner. It will be turkey and another joint. I haven’t decided what yet. I’m going later this week to buy everything with my missus, Jade.

We don’t order anything, we just go out early a couple of days before Christmas Day and get what we need. Everything is always there. We’ve never been caught out and had no turkey on the table.

Jade’s mum and brother are coming round. We’ll watch TV in the afternoon and play a few board games.

I might — and this is a big maybe — allow myself one Quality Street.

WEST Bromwich Albion away last Saturday was a very disappointing day.

The only pleasure I took from it was seeing our young loan midfielder, Scott High, make his first league start for us.

He’s a lovely lad who works hard and is a good player as well. It’s unfortunate that, so far, his loan from Huddersfield Town hasn’t gone quite as well as he would have wanted it to.

He’s kept his head down, trained well all the time and has finally got his chance.

It’s hard to get into that part of our team because we have good midfielders who are nearly always available.

Touch wood, we don’t seem to pick up many injuries in that department.

Maybe Scotty will get a run of games now. He’s an important member of the squad and popular in the dressing room.

THE Boxing Day clash at home to Stoke City is a big game. All the matches over the holiday period are big games.

Three fixtures close together can make a massive difference to your league standing if you do well in them.

If you get a couple of wins you’re really cooking. If you don’t get any points and the teams around you do, it makes for a tough start to the New Year.

THE saga of the outside Christmas lights at Wood Towers has turned into a sorry tale.

No, they’re not up and they’re not going up now.

They are exactly how they were last week and the week before that: a tangle of cabling half on the tree and half off it.

I was driven inside by freezing temperatures when I first tried to hang them up and, because of all the bad weather since, I just haven’t got round to sorting them out.

They can stay like that until after Christmas and then I’ll just bring them in when I take everything else down.

I’ll have another go next year.