If Martin Zubimendi was planning to leave Real Sociedad, as Liverpool were told was the case at a meeting with the player’s agent towards the end of July, he did not suggest as much when repeatedly asked what his future might look like earlier in the summer.
The questions came in June, while he was on international duty with Spain at the European Championship — specifically, a reminder of a phone call he had allegedly received from then Barcelona manager Xavi about the prospect of joining that club.
“I can’t tell you because I haven’t thought about it,” the 25-year-old midfielder said then. “I feel very loved, and I see leaving Real Sociedad as a long way off.”
After Spain knocked out host nation Germany in the quarter-finals a few weeks later, the issue came up again. “I have a contract with Real Sociedad,” Zubimendi insisted. “It’s where I feel most comfortable.”
He has been good to his public word and decided to stay in San Sebastian — although he would not be the first footballer to say one thing into a microphone but feel differently in private.
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His representative, Inaki Ibanez, already knew Liverpool’s new sporting director Richard Hughes, as he had appointed another of his clients, Andoni Iraola, as Bournemouth’s head coach last summer.
After starting his new job with Liverpool, Hughes was charged with identifying Jurgen Klopp’s replacement. Hughes did not pursue Xabi Alonso because he had established the Bayer Leverkusen manager, also an Ibanez client, would not leave the new German champions this summer. Hughes did not want to waste his time chasing a deal that would never happen, so focused on Arne Slot of Dutch club Feyenoord instead.
The more recent communication between Ibanez and Hughes over Zubimendi may have been just as clear.
Zubimendi had told family members that he intended to stay in San Sebastian shortly after returning to pre-season training with the club on August 5, a week before Liverpool publicly admitted defeat in their attempts to sign him. In the seven days that followed, Zubimendi did not miss a training session, took part in a team photo shoot, and played in a warm-up friendly game away to Union Berlin of Germany.
Liverpool believed Zubimendi had agreed to join them but that significant pressure from Real Sociedad changed his mind. The La Liga side dispute that theory, suggesting Liverpool were smarting from seeing a player turn them down in favour of a ‘smaller’ club. Either way, there is an acceptance that his loyalty is likely to be rewarded with a contract that would make him one of the highest-paid players in the club’s history.
Real Sociedad sources, who spoke anonymously to protect their positions, claim that it was impressed on Zubimendi what his departure could mean for the club he was leaving behind, considering the impending exit of fellow midfielder Mikel Merino to Arsenal. It would have left head coach Imanol Alguacil with little time to completely rebuild that area of his team before the transfer window shuts on August 30. Instead, Zubimendi is now expected to feature in their La Liga season opener at home against Rayo Vallecano on Sunday.
As a local lad who would have to return to the Basque city one day if he did leave, Zubimendi would not want to be responsible for the team falling down the table following his departure (they finished sixth last season to qualify for the Europa League). There were also his family and friends to consider: he had gone on holiday with pals to Brazil after returning from Euro 2024 as a champion.
Zubimendi’s relationship with Real Sociedad and, by extension, the city of San Sebastian is different from Pamplona-born Merino, who entered professional football through Osasuna, a club in Pamplona, an hour’s drive to the south. There has long been an expectation that Merino would move on this summer as Real Sociedad seek to cash in on a Euros-winning midfielder whose stock is high as he enters the final year of his contract.
Mikel Merino is expected to leave Real Sociedad (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
Merino had joined the club despite interest from fellow Basque side Athletic Bilbao and he has since spoken about why he made that decision. After disappointing spells at Borussia Dortmund in Germany and England’s Newcastle United, Merino felt he needed to prove himself and, with an eye on moving abroad again in the future, he believed Real Sociedad were the best club for him because they are slightly easier to leave.
Athletic have a policy of only using footballers born or trained in the Basque Country, so their pool of options is shallow. And historically, that club have expected the release clauses of their players to be paid in full. Real Sociedad have a slightly different reputation.
Since 1986, they have welcomed foreign players and, since 2002, signed non-Basque Spaniards as well. Though La Real continue to identify themselves through their Basque core, the club’s decision-makers have facilitated moves for players who want to go, even for fees lower than their contracted release clauses. Robin Le Normand, another Euro 2024 winner, was sold to Atletico Madrid in July for €34million (£29m; $37m), for example, roughly half the amount Real Sociedad were owed according to the clause in his contract.
They are driving a hard bargain with Arsenal for Merino but accept internally that he will eventually go. When he does leave, it will be with the blessing of the fans, who have not forgotten his role in the 2019-20 Copa del Rey final (postponed by 12 months due to Covid-19) when he helped Real Sociedad beat regional rivals Athletic, despite playing with a broken rib.
The context is different for Zubimendi, who started playing youth football with Antiguoko, a club in the Guipuzcoa province of the Basque Country, which has San Sebastian as its capital. Antiguoko, who also boast Alonso and Mikel Arteta as alumni, used to be a feeder club for Real Sociedad but have since switched to work with Athletic. As vice-president Roberto Montiel puts it to The Athletic, “Guipuzcoan society is different from the rest.”
Alonso and Arteta are Antiguoko graduates (David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Zubimendi is not the only Basque player to say no to an offer from a big club recently. Real Sociedad’s captain and Spain’s Euro 2024 final matchwinner, the Guipuzcoa-born Mikel Oyarzabal, has stayed despite widespread interest. When explaining why, he says that he has a different set of priorities: his wife is a doctor who works in Pamplona and, as a parent, Oyarzabal realises he would be asking his family to change their lives in the pursuit of his career.
Meanwhile, Nico Williams has returned to training with Athletic after helping Spain win Euro 2024 and has been given their No 10 shirt, the number previously worn by Iker Muniain, the winger who has made the most appearances (560) among outfield players in the club’s history. Williams said he is “looking forward to starting the season with Athletic”, despite Barcelona’s interest.
“People are often moved more by sentimentality than sporting matters,” Antiguoko’s Montiel insists. “It is very deeply rooted. This is reflected in Athletic’s philosophy. It is unique in the world. No other club in the world has such a philosophy. Real Sociedad also did it, until they couldn’t afford it and had to sign (from elsewhere).”
Martin Zubimendi scores against Girona in 2022 (Alex Caparros/Getty Images)
Montiel explained that Zubimendi’s preference to remain in familiar surroundings is a trait that is common down to the region’s junior levels.
“We have cases of 12-year-olds who would rather stay at Antiguoko than go to Real Sociedad,” Montiel says. “Or players who don’t come to Antiguoko because they prefer to stay with friends. We talk about this in the early stages up to the ‘juvenil’ (under-19s), then they take the step because money is involved. This year, two players (one born in 2011 and one in 2013) have said no to Real Sociedad to stay with us. Mikel Arteta and Xabi Alonso also did so in their day.
“The case of Zubimendi surprises me because at the beginning, when he was a child, Real Sociedad was a club that didn’t fit into his plans. When he was training there in the early years, they didn’t seem to like him or, at least, they had other players they liked more. They signed him at the last minute without seeming to be convinced, although, with time, his performances have been spectacular.”
For Zubimendi, his decision was all about timing. At 25, he knows big European clubs will not go away: Arsenal’s current interest in 28-year-old Merino proves that point.
“I have the feeling that he (Zubimendi) is following in the footsteps of Xabi Alonso (who eventually moved to Liverpool in 2004 at age 22),” Montiel concludes. “When there were rumours that he was going to Real Madrid he stayed at Real Sociedad, settled there and went to the national team. Then Liverpool and Madrid arrived.”
(Top photo: Visionhaus/Getty Images)
