Manchester United want Euro 2024 winner with £50m buyout clause and who has been compared to Xabi Alonso
Manchester United have added Martin Zubimendi to their list of midfield targets, talkSPORT understands.
Spain's Euro 2024 winner Zubimendi has a £50m release clause in his Real Sociedad contract.
The 25-year-old is one of the Red Devils' targets as they look to bolster their midfield options ahead of the new season.
United are keen to add a defensive midfielder to their squad after holding talks with Paris Saint-Germain's Manuel Ugarte
The Uruguayan is interested in a move to Old Trafford after falling out of favour with PSG boss Luis Enrique, but United appear to be keeping their options open.
The return of last season's loan signing Sofyan Amrabat is not entirely out of the question but United are delaying meeting the terms of a £21.4m buy-out clause.
Zubimendi played the second half of the Euro 2024 final against England replacing the injured Rodri at half time.
The Spanish has been compared to the former Liverpool and real Madrid star Xabi Alonsowho also began his brilliant career at Real Sociedad.
Alonso has spoken highly of Zubimendi on numerous occasions, even stating that he is the type of player that all coaches would like to have after having worked with him as coach of the Real Sociedad reserve team.
“Martin is a player that every coach would want to have,” said Alonso. “He is generous, he always thinks more about his teammates than himself. He has the ability to create play, to make those around him better, always offering solutions; to improve the play.”
“He understands what the next step is before the ball comes to him. He has that ability to organize the axis. I loved working with him.”
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Zubimendi has welcomed the praise from the Bayer Leverkusen manager and admits he never tires of receiving praise from his football hero.
“He’s an idol, a role model, so I’m delighted that he says nice things about me,” Zubimendi told The Guardian in 2022.
“I get asked about him so much that he must be bored of hearing me talk about him. He'll get tired of me talking about how good he is,” he added.
“I wasn’t with him for a full season because of the pandemic, but they were very nice months,” says Zubimendi. “When he arrived, that’s when I started to play more; I had a run of games with Xabi. I could feel the affection he had for me, which perhaps comes from sharing the position. He made an effort to teach me things, to teach me.”
“With him I learned to recognize and differentiate pressures, to overcome them. Before I played as I more or less naturally played. With him I began to really understand the concepts of ball output, of play construction. He insisted a lot on analysis. We did a review, with inflatables placed where the opponent would be.”
