Real Madrid and Barcelona are gearing up for an early tussle over one of La Liga’s brightest prospects, according to reports in Spain.<\/p>\n
Both Spanish giants declared their hand last season, joining Villarreal and a host of major clubs in chasing one of the second division’s standout talents.<\/p>\n
The player in question is Sergio Martinez. The 19-year-old has made a stunning start to life in La Liga with Racing Santander, helping his side to a 2-2 draw as they opened their campaign on Sunday.<\/p>\n
AS reported that Martinez’s dazzling display and his goal have reignited the interest of the major clubs who had already moved for him last season.<\/p>\n
Youngest scorer of the 21st century<\/p>\n
Born in Laredo in 2007, Martinez lined up for Racing against Villarreal on his top-flight debut and thumped a superb strike into the top corner of Luiz Junior’s net.<\/p>\n
La Liga data clocked the effort at 126.7 kilometres per hour.<\/p>\n
His breakthrough came just a year after his first outing with Racing’s senior side, when he played a few minutes against Castellon in an official match in 2025.<\/p>\n
At 19 years and 93 days, Martinez is now the youngest player to score for Racing on his La Liga debut in the 21st century.<\/p>\n
A recent graduate from the youth ranks, the right-footed midfielder has been promoted to the first-team squad, though he still carries a number registered with the reserves.<\/p>\n
Real Madrid and Barcelona: 3 million ignite the new battle<\/p>\n
Real Madrid, Barcelona and Villarreal had all made their move for him last season, back in the winter window.<\/p>\n
Martinez chose to stay put at Racing. That decision meant regular football with the reserves, and he also turned down a switch to second-division Mirandes during that spell.<\/p>\n
Having renewed his contract with Racing last November until 30 June 2029, the trio continue to track his progress closely.<\/p>\n
Racing know his release clause of 3 million euros could prove hugely tempting if he keeps delivering at this level in La Liga, but they will do everything in their power to protect their prized asset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real Madrid and Barcelona are gearing up for an early tussle over one of La Liga’s brightest prospects,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18165,92,23952,871,24139,85,82,15653,83,27928,1147],"class_list":["post-71950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-madrid","tag-al-ahly-sc","tag-barcelona","tag-club-friendlies","tag-elche","tag-elche-vs-barcelona","tag-laliga","tag-madrid","tag-racing-santander","tag-real-madrid","tag-s-martinez","tag-villarreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}