Martunis Sarbini (born 2 May 1997), simply known as Martunis, is a former Indonesian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a striker. He rose to fame in 2005 after surviving the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time ( UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicentre off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The undersea megathrust earthquake, known in the sci ...

and being found wandering along a beach by a group of journalists.

Early life

Martunis was born in the village of Tibang, in the district of Syiah Kuala,

Banda Aceh Banda Aceh (; , Jawi script, Jawi: ) is the capital and largest city in the province of Aceh, Indonesia. It is located on the island of Sumatra and has an elevation of 35 metres. The city covers an area of and had a population of 223,446 peopl ...

, Indonesia. On the morning of 26 December 2004, he was playing football with his friends in the pitch of his village when the tsunami struck. His mother and sister were amongst over 230,000 killed. He was stranded on a beach for 21 days and survived by holding onto a sofa. He was discovered by a group of journalists and found wearing a Portugal national team shirt with Manuel Rui Costa's name on the back. Due to the dehydration that he had suffered, he needed a

saline Saline may refer to: Salt-related * Saline (medicine), a liquid with salt content to match the human body * Saline water, non-medicinal salt water * Saline, a historical term (especially American) for a salt works or saltern Places United States ...

drip and was said to be frail and badly bitten. His condition was so poor that a member of the

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization. It was founded in the UK in 1919; its goal is to improve the lives of children worldwide. The organization raises money to imp ...

team that found him noted that if he had been found a day later, he could have perished. Later on, Martunis was reunited with his father. When images of him wearing the Portuguese shirt surfaced, they generated massive sympathy for him, being splashed all across international publications. This attracted the attention of the

Portuguese Football Federation The Portuguese Football Federation ( , FPF) is the governing body of Association football, football in Portugal. The federation was formed in 1914 as Portuguese Football Union (, UPF) by the three existing regional associations of Lisbon Footbal ...

(PFF) and

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Saudi Pr ...

. The PFF donated €40,000 to help rebuild his house, while Ronaldo travelled to Banda Aceh to visit Martunis in 2005, where he promised to pay for his education and a tour of the

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

. Since then, the two have met multiple times. Besides being invited to Portugal, in 2006, singer

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...

also invited Martunis and his father to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, where Madonna stayed with his family. They were both invited to tour the city's famous tourist spots, as well as other cities in the UK.

Football career

Martunis was recruited by Sporting and became a member of their

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

in Portugal. However, after a knee injury in 2016 during a charity match, Martunis retired from playing entirely.

Life after football

After retiring from football, Martunis tried to join the

police force The police are a constituted body of people empowered by a state with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citizen ...

, but apparently failed the admission test. Currently, he is a content creator, celebrity endorser and

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

. His channel mostly consists of football-related content. On 24 April 2021, Martunis joined the Democratic Party and became one of its cadres. He supports

Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (born 10 August 1978), commonly referred to as AHY, is an Indonesian politician and former Major (rank), army major who is currently serving as the leader of the Democratic Party (Indonesia), Democratic Party. Serving in ...

References

External links

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Martunis Ronaldo 07
on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{authority control People from Banda Aceh 1997 births Living people Acehnese people Indonesian men's footballers PSAP Sigli players Sporting CP footballers Democratic Party (Indonesia) politicians 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami Men's association football forwards Footballers from Aceh 21st-century Indonesian sportsmen