Lautaro Martínez's 'Agent' Comments Shot Down as Confusion Reigns on Barcelona Move
By Tom Gott
We all know about Barcelona's interest in Lautaro Martínez, but things took a turn this week when his 'agent' came out and revealed that the move is likely to go through.
Unfortunately, it turns out it wasn't actually his agent who said that.
Barcelona are the heavy favourites to land Martínez this summer - despite rivalling interest from the likes of Real Madrid, Manchester City and Chelsea - as they look for their long-term successor to Luis Suárez.
It's set to be one of the biggest transfer sagas of the summer, and Fox Sports Mexico did their best to send everyone wild by revealing that 'Martínez's agent' Sergio Zárate had exclusively revealed that a switch to Barcelona is close.
“Lautaro is playing at Inter now, but trust me, he will certainly go to Spain next," Zárate said. "There’s a very good chance he will join Barcelona.
"He’s a great player with no limits to his capabilities. The player will ultimately decide, but the fact that Lionel Messi wants to have him in the team can make his dreams come true.”
However, as it turns out, Sergio Zárate is not his agent, but merely the brother of one of his actual representatives, Rolando Zárate.
Meanwhile, another of Martínez's representatives, Beto Yaqué, quickly clarified that Sergio is not close to the Argentine and does not actually know what's going on.
He told SOS Fanta that only he and Rolando Zárate represent Martínez, so Sergio's comments are little more than the viewpoint of an excited fan. Ah.
Meanwhile, if that wasn't all confusing enough, Inter vice-president Javier Zanetti has insisted to ESPN that Martínez is happy at San Siro and is not necessarily interested in leaving.
"At Inter I see him happy, he identifies with the club," Zanetti said. "We believed in him. I see his future at Inter.
"But right now we're not talking about the transfer market, the most important thing is health. Then we'll have time to think about it."
We're pretty much back at square one with this one. Barcelona want Martínez and a source has confirmed to 90min that the feeling is mutual, but there's still some (lots of) work to be done before this deal gets over the line. Roll on the transfer window.