Aston Villa’s first Argentine player in the club history had his own odd story which stunned the management. 

Aston Villa’s success under Unai Emery is quite inseparable to the Argentina stars in the team. Emiliano Martinez and Emiliano Buendia clearly contributed well to Villa’s rise under Emery. The former even became the most successful Villan in the World Cup history, the only World Cup winner and holds the record of most appearances in the tournament before he left last summer. 

Meanwhile, the latter has been the key figure in the team since last season. Buendia was instrumental in last season’s campaign as Villa ended their 30-year title drought. His goals have been awarded several times too, including in Europa League 2025/26. 

However, The Lions’ first Argentina was far from being a star of the team. The aforementioned player was Gustavo Bartelt, a loanee from AS Roma back in early 2000. Steve Stride, the former right hand of Aston Villa owner back then, Doug Ellis, shared his memory of dealing with him as reported in Birmingham mail. 

“The boy from Buenos Aires simply wasn’t good enough to warrant a permanent transfer. If he had been, we might have run into all sorts of problems. “

How bad was Bartelt in Aston Villa 

The Argentine was signed on loan from AS Roma at that time. The ex-frontman impressed Giallorossi boss in 1998 for his pace. Unfortunately, his playing time was limited due to the fierce competition upfront with Francesco Totti, Marco Delvecchio and Paulo Sergio. During his spell in Roma, Bartelt only featured in 25 games but mainly as a substitute. 

The striker who was 26 years old at that time hoped he would play more regularly in the West Midlands. Unfortunately, his form was not convincing enough. Stride added his comment on his performance with the reserve team. 

“He scored in a 5-0 win in a friendly against Bromsgrove but did nothing to suggest he could hack it in the Premier League, even though he managed a couple of goals in half-a-dozen games for the reserves before the end of the season. “

Bartelt eventually never played for the first team and moved to Spain with Rayo Vallecano on another loan. The Argentine did slightly better with one goal and two assists in 16 games. 

His odd case off the pitch

The player who began his career with Atletico All Boys before joining Lanus had one off-pitch issue which eventually put his career in trouble. It was an odd issue with his passport.  

Prior to his Villa days, Bartelt was accused of using false documents to get an Italian passport although his involvement was eventually cleared. While in the UK, the Buenos Aires-born forward once again stumbled in the same case. 

At that time, his agent tried to convince Villa that Bartelt had a British passport, which could have been beneficial for registration as at that time, there were still restrictions for foreign players in the squad. Stride recalled that moment which eventually led to his doubts.  

“We obviously requested evidence that this was the case, but it took forever for anything to materialise. Then, when I was finally presented with it, something just didn’t ring true. Not only was the passport in pristine condition, Bartelt’s name appeared as Gustavo Javier BARTLETT!”

Stride then became more doubtful of him. Fortunately, the manager John Gregory was not keen on signing him either. His passport issue apparently also prevented him from returning to his home soil after his stint with the La Liga side was not made permanent.