Iñigo Martínez, future Barça player, believes that Athletic Club has thrown him to the lions

2023-06-06 13:20:57

BarcelonaIñigo Martínez will be the first signing of Barça 23/24. It is a bet by Mateu Alemany that has been in effect since last summer, when the Ondarroa center became a real option to compensate for the difficulty in incorporating Jules Kounde, who eventually ended up in Xavi Hernández’s squad . Now, after one last season at Athletic Club, the footballer ends his contract and is free to fulfill a dream that has been resisting him since 2017, when Ernesto Valverde asked him at the beginning of his journey on the culer bench . Precisely, Txingurri was his last coach in San Mamés.

Iñigo officially communicated this Tuesday with a video on social networks that he will not continue at Athletic and, at the same time, the Basque club has published a letter confirming the departure and adding a nuance. “After various attempts at negotiation in the last two seasons, Iñigo Martínez has maintained his rejection of the club’s offer to extend his contract,” the statement said. In the copy of Twitter to spread the note, the Biscayne entity has used a more direct formula: “The center will take a new course after rejecting the offer”. Minutes later, the net was flooded with abuse directed at the player, prompting the official account to intervene in the same thread: “Please, disrespect and insults have no place at the Athletic Club.”

This sequence has clouded the farewell of Iñigo Martínez from the club where he has played six seasons and 177 official games and has caused the footballer’s environment to react forcefully: “We want to categorically deny that the current Athletic board has presented no offer to the player, not even assuming the point of negotiation that the previous board of directors had been at. Iñigo has never rejected any offer from the club because it did not exist. We are surprised and in disbelief at the communication from the club and consider which is a dishonest act to avoid responsibilities”. The centre-back believes that Athletic has thrown him to the lions (never better said) and accuses the president Jon Uriarte, in the position since last summer, of having missed the truth when explaining to the members the reasons for their departure.

Barça is working to sign Iñigo Martínez

The next station of the absolute international defender will be Barça, with whom he has a closed commitment for the next two seasons. He has already undergone a medical examination and is only pending the officiality of the operation, which is also conditioned by the green light from the League in order to be registered. Iñigo, who came to Barcelona this Tuesday accompanied by Carmelo Sánchez, his uncle and representative, will lose purchasing power in relation to what he was getting at the Athletic Club due to the change in taxation, but will see the difference compensated with the signing bonus, which will be paid in two seasons. In Bilbao he has earned around five million euros net per season, an amount that president Uriarte was not prepared to keep for a footballer who has just turned 32 years old. However, the manager has not directly transferred his intentions to a formal proposal, according to the player’s version.