Official! Inigo Martinez signs for Barcelona

The arrival of Íñigo Martínez at FC Barcelona has been talked about for months. The left-sided centre-back has always been a favourite of the sporting direcotrs, due to his profile and talent, and now that his contract with Athletic has expired, the Catalan giants have made his signing official at zero cost, making him the club's second signing this summer after Ilkay Gündogan. 

The defender signs for two seasons, that is, until 30 June 2025, and will have a termination clause of 400 million euros.

On Tuesday, the Basque player was spotted at the Ciutat Esportiva by 'Jijantes' posing with the club's official kit. The announcement was practically imminent it seemed, and so it was.

Íñigo joins Xavi Hernández's team to shore up the defence. With a great ability to bring out the ball, the coach was looking for a left-footed profile to be able to fight for minutes with the centre-back pairing of Christensen and Araujo. 

Formed in the Real Sociedad youth academy, where he played 239 games for the 'Txuri-Urdín' first team, in 2018 he swapped San Sebastián for Bilbao. At San Mamés he has become one of the key players, being a starter whenever injuries have allowed him to do so.

At 32 years of age, he comes with the experience of more than 350 games in the first division. At European level he has played 5 Champions League games, 5 Europa League games and two more in the qualifiers of that competition. 

At international level, he has also completed 20 matches with the Spanish national team, with the ill-fated match against Scotland in qualification for Euro 2024 the last one in which he participated.