\n<\/p>\n
Mart\u00edn has become one of Hansi Flick’s most trusted options over the past year, filling in capably at both left-back and centre-back during a season disrupted by injuries in Barcelona’s backline. <\/span><\/p>\n That growing importance has not gone unnoticed elsewhere in Europe: reports in Spain say an offer from AC Milan has already risen from an initial \u20ac20 million to around \u20ac35 million in recent days, with the Italian side keen to strengthen their left side on relatively modest terms.<\/span><\/p>\n Milan’s interest in Mart\u00edn is not new. The Rossoneri were tracking him as far back as February, when they were reported to have lodged a \u20ac25 million bid, at a time when the player had already earned the nickname “Gerard Maldini” among Italian scouts for his physical resemblance and aggressive playing style, evoking the Milan and Italy great Paolo Maldini. <\/span><\/p>\n Barcelona rejected that approach, and Mart\u00edn himself showed no interest in leaving.<\/span><\/p>\n Flick is understood to have asked the club to resist any sale this time as well, given the trust he has shown in Mart\u00edn since giving him his first-team opportunity when he was still largely unknown. <\/span><\/p>\n Barcelona’s financial position, however, means any substantial bid is likely to be considered rather than dismissed outright, even for a player who signed a contract extension to 2028 back in January with a release clause of \u20ac100 million.<\/span><\/p>\n For now, all indications are that Mart\u00edn’s own preference remains unchanged. Despite the interest from Milan and Chelsea, both of whom are looking to reshape their squads after disappointing 2025-26 campaigns, the defender is not believed to be pushing for an exit and continues to view his future at Camp Nou as his priority heading into the new season. <\/span><\/p>\n Transfermarkt currently values him at around \u20ac35 million, broadly in line with the sums being discussed by the two suitors, though Barcelona have given no indication that a deal is close to being agreed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mart\u00edn has become one of Hansi Flick’s most trusted options over the past year, filling…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}