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Report: Several European clubs interested in Josef Martinez

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Josef Martinez is having one of the greatest seasons Major League Soccer has ever seen, but his exploits are beginning to generate the kind of interest that could lead to him leaving.

Martinez broke the MLS single season scoring record on Friday night and has justifiably become the subject of foreign transfer rumors. Fox Sports 1 analyst and former U.S. Men’s National Team midfielder Stuart Holden reported on Sunday that there is growing transfer interest in Martinez. Holden revealed the information during halftime of Sunday night’s clash between the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders.

“The fact of the matter is no, they don’t.” Holden said when asked if Atlanta United has to sell their prized forward.. “And I can actually confirm that there is serious interest from La Liga, from the English Premier League, and then also Ligue 1 in France for Josef Martinez.”

Holden didn’t name any specific clubs involved, but it’s hardly shocking that teams in Europe in someone with Martinez’s goal scoring record. He has 28 goals in only 26 games so far this season and has a total of 47 goals in just 43 games in his short Atlanta United career. The potential that plenty of European teams want in on that action is far from a surprise.

But, does Atlanta actually want to sell one of the greatest goal-scoring threats the league has ever seen? According to Holden, no, they don’t.

“What I’ve heard is no,” Holden said, “and they will keep ahold of him until a couple days left in the transfer window. Does he stay or does he go? My money says he stays in Atlanta United and they’re competing for MLS Cup.”

Comments

  1. I agree with johnny. They will keep him, through the playoffs and sell him during the January window. This is a disappointing article since he rehashed just what we already heard if you watched the game last night. How much of the money would Atlanta get from a sale? If it is even half, they would be better off selling him and getting several quality players. Look at how Tottenham improved after selling Bale to Real; Madrid.

    Reply
    • Transfermkt listed the sale from Torino at 4.5 million euros, and now value him at 6.5 million. A 2 million euro profit since March is not a bad deal. You do have to remember that MLS has its own rules that Spurs did not have to play by.
      ————————————————————————————————
      Let’s say that Nantes buys Martinez for the projected 6.5 million (transfermkt estimate)
      6.5 million fee – the 4.5 million purchase price= 2 million to work with.
      MLS takes one fourth of any transfer fee not involving homegrown players
      2,000,000-500,000= 1.5 million
      Of the 1.5 million Atlanta would receive 750,000 as TAM, the other half can be spent on club expenses such as the Dev. Academy or to pay down existing or new DP players.
      ——————————————————————————————————–
      Long story short Atlanta really only will receive around 1/4 of the total transfer fee that it could spend on the salary of new player(s). They could get one DP at a lower end price and use some of the remaining TAM to purchase another mid-level player or two but not to the extent clubs like Spurs, Liverpool, or Dortmund are able to.

      Reply
      • Why would Atlanta sell for $6.5 million? That would be insane, so they can pay more to get the same type of player?

    • Atlanta are trying to win a championship. They would be idiots to sell him now. They wont be idiots.

      The Euro team on the other end if he is traded?
      Almost certainly they are fine. Set up to finish where they are supposed to finish and looking toward the future to be set up to finish where they are supposed to finish.

      Atlanta in a battle to win it all and everything as it should be in Europe for another year means he isn’t sold until it makes sense for Atlanta to sell him. Winter sale or resigning for more money.

      Reply
    • The EPL loan window does not close until 31st so a club could acquire Martinez on loan until January with an option to buy at that time or in May. That’s how CCV just went on loan to Swansea over the weekend.

      Reply
      • While researching I discovered that Portugal doesn’t close until Sept. 21 so there is a chance that Parks could move to another 1st Division side to get playing time.

  2. Exporting players is the next evolution for MLS in order to grow and develop. We can’t magically become a Premiere league without first showing that the league can export players and have them be successful elsewhere. I’m all for a move whenever the time comes.

    Reply
    • Wrong.
      Atlanta is trying to win a championship. You may not value that championship, and they are definitely NOT Real Madrid, but they are trying to win it all and not many are.
      .
      I don’t mean to rip on an author whose views I don’t know, but I HATE articles like these.
      The “We need to include Europe when talking MLS” articles, when the story is
      “Atlanta is a very good team with very good players like Martinez and they are not alone”
      No validation from Europe needed.
      .
      The next evolution is getting more fans to surpass all but those very top level Euro teams trying to win it all, MLS is quite far in that already with no signs of slowing down. Pushing talent to Europe doesn’t fulfill that, being able to pay the talent does.

      Reply
      • Holding onto players with options and the will to play in higher leagues will come back to haunt MLS. High salaries haven’t worked in Russia and China and it won’t work here. It doesn’t make sense to move players now with the playoffs approaching, but if Martinez wants to leave ATL needs to move him in January or they risk the next player passing on signing with them. Do you think Monaco wanted to part with Mbappe or Barca with Neymar, Dortmund still wanted to compete without Dembele last season?

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