INDIA: FC Barcelona has confirmed the arrival of Spanish international Iñigo Martínez on a free transfer from fellow LALIGA EA SPORTS side Athletic Club. Martínez has signed a two-year deal that ties him to the Blaugrana until the summer of 2025 and will shore up the best defensive line in Spanish football which conceded just 20 goals in 38 LALIGA matches last season.
A technically gifted defender, he is comfortable with the ball at his feet and is crucially at ease playing on the left side of a center-back pairing, something coach Xavi Hernández was keen to reinforce this summer.
Martínez has been a big name in Spanish football for many years now, but here are five things you might not know about the newest Barça star.
He has a habit of scoring from his own half!
Iñigo’s first-ever goal in the top flight was in October 2011 in a Basque Derby no less, scoring the consolation in Real Sociedad’s 2-1 defeat to Athletic Club at the Reale Arena. If that wasn’t impressive enough, however, he scored his third professional goal one month later in exactly the same fashion, this time to hand his side a dramatic 3-2 win over Real Betis in stoppage time. His exploits drew praise from former Real Sociedad legend Xabi Alonso, who was playing for Liverpool in England at the time and who had also scored from similarly long-range in the past: “He’s my idol!” he wrote on Twitter.
A Spanish international from the youth ranks to senior level
Born in Ondarroa, a seaside town roughly equidistant between San Sebastian and Bilbao, Iñigo took his first steps in international football with Spain’s U20 side in 2011, making his senior debut in 2013. He’s since won 20 caps for his country, scoring once in a 2-2 draw with the Czech Republic in the 2022 Nations League. He was also part of the Spain squad at the 2012 Olympic Games but won’t have fond memories of the competition; he was sent off on his tournament debut against Japan.
The highest-profile player to ever jump across the Basque Derby divide?
Having come through the ranks at Real Sociedad, he was a mainstay for the Txuri-urdin for years before making the move to Athletic Club in January 2018 after Athletic Club paid his €32 million release clause. Despite the strong shared identity of the two clubs and the famously friendly derby atmosphere among fans, very few players move between the two at the senior level – the most recent high-profile move was current Real Sociedad keeper Alex Remiro – and Martínez drew a lot of criticism in San Sebastian for the decision. He came up against his old club in the rescheduled 2020 Copa del Rey final (played in 2021), only to lose 1-0. His conduct after the match, when he made a point of genuinely congratulating his former teammates despite his disappointment, drew significant praise in the media.
He is Athletic Club’s most expensive player of all time
The €32 million transfer fee that Athletic Club paid Real Sociedad for Martínez was the biggest ever outlay for a player in the club’s history, significantly more than the second most expensive transfer on the list: full-back Yuri Berchiche’s €24 million move from PSG to San Mamés in 2018. During his five seasons at Athletic Club, he quickly became an on-pitch leader for the side, making 177 appearances and scoring eight goals in all competitions.
He is only the second player in history to play for Real Sociedad, Athletic Club, and FC Barcelona
The move from Bilbao to Barcelona was once a common one, with the likes of Spanish internationals Andoni Zubizarreta and Julio Salinas as well as legendary coach Ernesto Valverde running out for both sides in the 1980s and 1990s, but Iñigo is the first player to play for both clubs in almost 15 years since Santi Ezquerro made that same jump in 2005. He is also the latest in a long line of players to play for both FC Barcelona and Real Sociedad, joining a list that includes Claudio Bravo and Antoine Griezmann. However, he was just the second player in history to play for all three sides after Jon Andoni Goikoetxea, who won the 1992 European Cup with Barça in between spells with the two Basque sides.
