Final week, Inigo Martinez made the shock resolution to depart Barcelona in favour of a transfer to Saudi Professional League aspect Al-Nassr. The 34-year-old’s departure is a large assist for the Catalans of their bid to register the likes of Joan Garcia and Marcus Rashford, though it does imply that Hansi Flick has misplaced certainly one of his common starters from final season.
Barcelona have been planning to promote certainly one of their central defensive choices this summer time, nevertheless it was believed that the selection was between Ronald Araujo and Andreas Christensen. There was no indication that Martinez would depart, however because it seems, it had been within the pipeline for at the least a few weeks.
As per MD, a deal was put into movement throughout Barcelona’s pre-season tour of Japan and South Korea, with officers from Al-Nassr having travelled to Seoul with the intention to maintain talks. And fairly than it being the Catalan membership that made the transfer, the negotiations have been instigated by the participant himself.
Flick and Deco wished Martinez to remain at Barcelona
The choice of Martinez to depart caught Barcelona without warning – particularly Flick and sporting director Deco, who had each banked on the veteran defender being within the first workforce squad for the 2025-26 season. The concept had been for different gross sales to be made with the intention to ease the membership’s monetary woes, however ultimately, these weren’t wanted – for now.
As issues stand, Barcelona can be dealing with the brand new marketing campaign with solely 4 senior centre-back choices: Pau Cubarsi, Araujo, Christensen and Eric Garcia. The departure of Martinez may have a large bearing on the success that Flick’s aspect has over the following 12 months, though that might change if a substitute have been to be signed earlier than the summer time switch window closes firstly of September.