Surprise Barcelona deal was orchestrated during pre-season tour of South Korea | OneFootball

Last week, Inigo Martinez made the shock decision to leave Barcelona in favour of a move to Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr. The 34-year-old’s departure is a massive help for the Catalans in their bid to register the likes of Joan Garcia and Marcus Rashford, although it does mean that Hansi Flick has lost one of his regular starters from last season.

Barcelona have been planning to sell one of their central defensive options this summer, but it was believed that the choice was between Ronald Araujo and Andreas Christensen. There was no indication that Martinez would leave, but as it turns out, it had been in the pipeline for at least a couple of weeks.

As per MD, a deal was put into motion during Barcelona’s pre-season tour of Japan and South Korea, with officials from Al-Nassr having travelled to Seoul in order to hold talks. And rather than it being the Catalan club that made the move, the negotiations were instigated by the player himself.

Image via ABC

Flick and Deco wanted Martinez to stay at Barcelona

The decision of Martinez to leave caught Barcelona by surprise – especially Flick and sporting director Deco, who had both banked on the veteran defender being in the first team squad for the 2025-26 season. The idea had been for other sales to be made in order to ease the club’s financial woes, but in the end, those were not needed – for now.

As things stand, Barcelona will be facing the new campaign with only four senior centre-back options: Pau Cubarsi, Araujo, Christensen and Eric Garcia. The departure of Martinez could have a massive bearing on the success that Flick’s side has over the next 12 months, although that could change if a replacement were to be signed before the summer transfer window closes at the start of September.