Name: Iñigo Martinez
Club: Real Sociedad
Nationality: Spanish
Position: Defender
Who is he?
A product of Real Sociedad’s youth academy, Iñigo Martinez made his senior debut at the start of the 2011-12 season, having spent a couple of years in the lower leagues with the club’s B team.
That October, the defender scored his first goal in the Basque derby against Athletic Bilbao. And it was some goal as he did a Beckham, catching the goalkeeper off his line from his own half.
Achievements
Last season the 22-year-old was a key cornerstone of the Sociedad side that qualified for the Champions League and also received international recognition.
Having represented Spain at last year’s Olympics and starred for his country as La Furia Roja won the European U21 Championship, Martinez finally got a senior cap last month in a friendly against Ecuador. However he missed out on a call up for the last two World Cup qualifiers through injury.
Attributes
Although he is ‘only’ 1m81, he has a good leap and is powerful in the air. A wholehearted player, his distribution is solid and tends to be accurate when launching long passes. Last season, 172 of his 301 long passes out of defence found their man.
Although he is not the quickest, he is tactically proficient and makes up for that weakness with good positioning.
He is also the type of defender that gets on the ball. In La Liga last season, he was ranked in the Top 50 when it came to the number of passes attempted per game. Within his own team he was ranked third behind midfielders Asier Illarramendi and Xabi Prieto.
He has also scored another goal from the halfway line to add to the one against Bilbao (watch the one against Betis below).
Potential
Martinez is an outside bet for a place in Spain’s World Cup squad, although he would need to be more involved in the senior squad between now and next June.
But he has huge potential and could possibly follow Illarramendi out of the club. Illarramendi left for Real Madrid and there are sure to be plenty of clubs interested in acquiring the centre-half with Barcelona and Real said to be sniffing around.
However he is contracted to Sociedad until 2017 and has a €30 million buy-out clause. Certainly Manchester United fans will get to know him when he faces them in the Champions League group stages.
