Manchester United could get a £50m bargain to sign young Spanish player
Man Utd are looking at holding midfielders this summer and one player who is of interest to them is Spain international Martin Zubimendi.
Martin Zubimendi
Martin Zubimendi lifts the European Championship trophy as his star turn in the final
When Premier League clubs look to sign defensive midfielders now there is a template they will use to populate their scouting databases: find me another Rodri.
The 28-year-old is the best in the world in his position, going to ever greater heights since moving to Manchester City for £62m in 2019. His 74-game unbeaten run at club level was ended by Manchester United at Wembley in May, but after winning the player of the tournament award at Euro 2024, he is in with every chance of winning the Ballon d’Or this year.
So with United on the lookout for a holding midfielder this summer, they would love to find someone who can closely match the outstanding Spaniard in their bid to take the fight to City. Who better than the man who replaced Rodri in the European Championship final, the Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi?
There was no noticeable drop-off when the 25-year-old came on and UEFA’s technical report into the final makes clear his influence. The cadre of coaches and former players tasked with analysing the tournament noticed that the quality of Spain’s play didn’t wane.
“The second period proved a different story, despite Spain’s half-time loss of Rodri, the player of the tournament, owing to injury,” they write.
“A pivotal factor was the change from a 1+2 in midfield before the break, with Rodri deeper than Fabián Ruiz and Olmo, to a 2+1 with Ruiz dropping back alongside Rodri’s replacement, Martín Zubimendi. It was a measure of Spain’s excellent balance as a team that Zubimendi could slot in so effectively.”
Spain coach Luis de la Fuente wasn’t surprised and picked Zubimendi to fulfil that role because of his similarities with Rodri. If he represented any other nation he would almost certainly be starting.
“Zubimendi is a player with very similar qualities to Rodrigo and we wanted to keep that same structure,” said de la Fuente. “It’s true that it enabled us with his fresh legs to bring the ball out more, with more individual running with the ball to open things up and create overloads when driving forward.”
United knew about Zubimendi’s skills long before that final in Berlin. They were interested in signing him after he played two Europa League group stage games against them in the 2022/23 season, impressing enough to find his name on a list of potential midfield targets under Erik ten Hag.
At the time, Casemiro was beginning to make that position his own at Old Trafford after his £70m move from Real Madrid, but United were aware that at some point they would need a succession plan and Zubimendi was an option. Fast forward two years and that time might have come.
An exit for Casemiro isn’t essential to signing a new midfielder this summer, but it would help grease the wheels given his substantial salary. Zubimendi isn’t the only option either, with Manuel Ugarte perhaps the more likely deal at this stage given talks have been held and the Uruguayan is keen on making the switch.
But Zubimendi’s £50.5m release clause makes him an attractive alternative at a time when Ineos are cutting costs. Those comparisons with Rodri are pretty encouraging as well.
He isn’t the only deep-lying Spanish midfielder who has had an impact on Zubimendi. Xabi Alonso is the coach on everyone’s wishlist at the moment but during his time at Real Sociedad B he saw something special in a midfielder that bears hallmarks of the former Bayern Munich and Real Madrid player.
“Martin’s a player all coaches would want,” Alonso said. “He’s generous, he always thinks more about his teammates than himself.
“He has that ability to generate play, to make those around him better, always offering solutions; to improve the move. He understands what the next step is before the ball gets to him. He has that ability to organise, the axis. I loved working with him.”
Ten Hag seems to like the Spaniard and what Zubimendi detailed that he learnt from Alonso might be way, with the Dutchman keen to improve United’s build-up play.
“With him, I learned to recognise and differentiate [types of] presses, overcoming them,” Zubimendi told the Guardian in 2022. “Before then, I played the way that more or less came naturally. With him I started to truly understand concepts for bringing the ball out, building play. He insisted a lot on the analysis. We would walk it through, inflatables positioned where the opposition would be.”
In that interview, Zubimendi revealed he had added the Premier League to his TV package in the summer of 2022 and was taking an interest in the league and United.
“What stands out are the challenges, the strength, the directness, the shooting from outside the area and the openness: in Spain we’re more focused on keeping the ball,” he said.
“They [United] look solid with the new centre-back pair: [Lisandro] Martínez and [Raphaël] Varane seem to be fitting very well. And in attack, whether it’s through combinations inside with [Bruno] Fernandes and [Christian] Eriksen or pace further up, they can get at you. Fernandes’s passes into space are very dangerous.”
Zubimendi could soon find himself in that team himself, playing the Rodri role in red. It would be quite the prospect for United.
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