Barcelona not in danger of losing key defender despite FFP woes – Football España

Barcelona have been very busy in recent weeks, with new contract having been agreed with the likes of Ronald Araujo, Pedri, Gavi and Pau Cubarsi. Sporting director Deco has plans for more players to be offered renewals in the coming weeks, and one of those who will be spoken to is Inigo Martinez.

Barcelona have been delighted with the veteran defender’s performances this season. He built a very strong partnership with Pau Cubarsi earlier in the campaign, and that was only broken in January when he suffered a muscular injury during the Spanish Super Cup final.

It was decided weeks ago that Barcelona would offer a renewal to Martinez, with the club wanting the situation to be addressed even before he reached the games threshold that would trigger an automatic one-year extension. However, nothing has been finalised yet, and this is because of Financial Fair Play.

Due to the aforementioned new contracts for Araujo, Pedri and co, Barcelona do not have the salary space required to register Martinez’s new contract, and the situation would be the same even if they waited for him to trigger the extension in his current deal. This has given the impression that there is significant jeopardy about the 33-year-old leaving at the end of the season.

However, MD say that there is no danger of Martinez being forced to leave for free, as La Liga’s veto does not come into effect until the summer, at which point Barcelona will have the necessary space in their salary limit to register him.

Barcelona are expected to part ways with at least one central defender during the summer transfer window, given that Jonathan Tah is almost certain to arrive once his Bayer Leverkusen contract expires. However, Martinez is not one that is on the cards to leave, with Andreas Christensen and Eric Garcia being the leading candidates.