Barcelona veteran is now on track for automatic one-year contract extension | OneFootball

Inigo Martinez is one of the players who has benefitted the most from the appointment of Hansi Flick as the head coach of FC Barcelona. From being one of the fringe players in his first season at the Blaugrana club, the Basque defender has gone on to become one of the key leaders of this team, even without having the armband.

He is also performing at a very high level on the pitch, and this was clear from his performance in the last match against Red Star Belgrade, in which he got on the scoresheet, and was also named as the MVP for this game.

Martinez has been a regular starter for Flick this season, as he has started all but one game, playing 11 matches in La Liga and 4 in the UEFA Champions League.

Thus, SPORT notes that he is close to meeting the condition of playing 60% of the games for at least 45 minutes this season, which would trigger an automatic one-year contract extension.

In the most optimistic scenario, if Barcelona reaches the finals of the Spanish Super Cup, Copa del Rey, and the UCL, they could play up to 61 games this season.

In that case, Martínez would need to play 37 games to meet the requirement. Having already played 15 games in the first quarter of the campaign, he will need to play at least 45 minutes in 22 more games for the remainder of the season.

The player has publicly expressed his desire to keep playing for Barcelona and winning trophies with the Blaugrana club. The Catalan club itself will be happy with this situation as Martinez has formed a very good partnership with Pau Cubarsi, and this duo has not really allowed Flick to miss the likes of Ronald Araujo and Andreas Christensen.