“AS” revealed that over the past few days, Racing and the player received successive calls from clubs seeking to change his destination, among them Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Villarreal, alongside clubs from the English Premier League, the German Bundesliga and the Saudi League.
None of it shifted Martinez. He held firm to his decision to wear the Real Madrid shirt, despite the other offers on the table.
Real Madrid, for their part, never tried to activate the 3 million euro release clause in the player’s contract. Instead they sought an agreement with Racing to avoid any tension during the negotiations and to protect the relationship with the club in the future.
Read also: “A horrific thing!”: scathing criticism of the referees of the Liverpool and Nottingham match