"It’s always nice because you can bring people together when you host a dinner"

With the best Blighty has to offer very much off the dinner table, what are the Brazilian delicacies everyone should be trying? “I would say chicken parmigiana. It's breaded chicken with tomato sauce and cheese. So good,” he says. “It's my favourite thing. The barbecue in Brazil is amazing. And feijoada is really good as well. It's black beans with sausages and some meat.”

When asked which footballer, past or present, he would invite to dine with him, the Arsenal winger doesn’t hesitate: “Cristiano [Ronaldo]. I’m a big fan of his. I’ve watched him since I was a kid. He inspires a lot of people. He seems like a nice guy as well, and we speak the same language.”

Having been focused on his football career since the age of 10, Martinelli admits he hasn’t had much time to develop his own culinary skills. “I don't cook anything,” he concedes with an increasingly familiar chuckle. “I know how to make rice and fried eggs, but that's all. Nothing else.I would like to learn how to make pasta. I really like pasta, and people say it's not that difficult.”

Indeed, his home cooking habits have even become the subject of plenty of laughs for his mates. “For breakfast, I normally have bread with butter and coffee with milk. Lunch is rice, beans, and some steak. Dinner is rice, beans and chicken or some pasta. My friends here always make jokes when they come to my place because we always have rice and beans, and they say, ‘Ah, you eat rice and beans every day, how is that possible?!’.”

While he works on his own skills in the kitchen, Martinelli has the luxury of being able to explore London’s renowned food scene freely, broadening his horizons and expanding his palate in the English capital. “I really like Italian food and Asian food,” he reveals. “Before I came here, I didn't like Japanese food. But now I love it. I always go to Novikov [in Mayfair], and I'm always eating Asian food.

“I think everyone changes in life. When I was a kid, I used to eat rice, beans, and fried eggs every single day. That was all I had because I didn’t like anything else. But nowadays, I like more things. You change.”

Brazil is never far from Martinelli’s thoughts, though, as he seeks out the togetherness that encompasses his home country’s food culture. “I miss my friends in Brazil because they don’t come over often. And my family, of course. I think I would make a barbecue [if I hosted them]. Outside, if the weather helps.”

He still knows all the best spots to eat in his hometown: “You can go anywhere and eat well. There are two I normally go to; one is called Rancho da Picanha - they just serve picanha [rump steak] there, and it's so good. And Alemão - they make parmigiana there, which is my favourite dish. I always go there as well. So those two are my favourite ones.”

Of course, navigating stringent dietary restrictions as an elite-level professional footballer at Arsenal is a challenge, but Martinelli still finds ways to indulge. “We always have to weigh ourselves, we have the nutritionist as well to control us,” he says. “Sometimes we can enjoy a bit because eating is one of the most amazing things in life. So sometimes we eat something that’s not healthy. [I eat] Ice cream. I love it. I could eat it all day. My favourite flavours are vanilla and chocolate.”

But football and food aren’t his only passions - there’s a third ‘f’ too. Martinelli has leaned into London’s world-renowned fashion scene, taking full advantage of being able to procure the kinds of luxury pieces he could only dream of as a boy growing up in a poor suburb of São Paulo. Despite his humble beginnings, he looks at home in a beige Sandro suit and Armani Exchange shirt as he takes a seat at Maroto.

Although the 23-year-old prefers to hit up high-end stores like Harrods and Selfridges and is a sucker for luxury brands like Dior, Prada and Louis Vuitton, that doesn’t mean you’ll catch the Arsenal man wearing anything too flashy, as he opts for an understated, monochromatic wardrobe. “Most of the time, I wear black and white,” he says. “Sometimes I go for blue, but mostly I keep it simple. I prefer to feel comfy. If I feel comfy and it looks nice, that’s what I go for.”