{"id":79662,"date":"2026-09-02T21:03:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/79662\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T21:03:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:03:27","slug":"lautaro-yes-barcelona-negotiated-with-me-but-i-preferred-to-stay-with-inter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/79662\/","title":{"rendered":"Lautaro: Yes, Barcelona negotiated with me, but I preferred to stay with Inter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inter Milan striker Lautaro Martinez has revealed the truth behind reports linking him with Barcelona in the final days of the transfer window. The Argentine confirmed the Catalan club’s interest was genuine, but insisted he preferred to stay with the Nerazzurri.<\/p>\n

Speculation over Lautaro’s future grew late in the window after Atletico Madrid held firm in their refusal to let Julian Alvarez leave for Barcelona, despite the Catalans’ interest and the player pushing for a way out that would allow the deal to go through.<\/p>\n

With Alvarez off the table, Lautaro Martinez emerged as one of the potential alternatives to bolster Barcelona’s attack. Inter Milan, though, denied receiving any official offer from the Catalan club and shut the door on negotiations over their striker.<\/p>\n

Lautaro finally broke his silence at the Gran Gala del Calcio ceremony in Italy, admitting for the first time that the reports about Barcelona’s interest were true.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Sky Italia in remarks carried by the Catalan newspaper “Sport<\/a>“, he said: “Receiving offers like these is always a source of pride, because I work constantly to stay at the highest level in football. The reports were true.”<\/p>\n

Interest or not, the Inter Milan captain stressed his desire to stay put. The club, he confirmed, was and still is his first choice.<\/p>\n

He added: “I have always said that I want to stay at Inter, alongside my teammates and our fans. As long as they want me, I will stay at this club.”<\/p>\n

Lautaro Martinez, 29, has a contract with the Nerazzurri that runs until 2029.<\/p>\n

Barcelona, meanwhile, ended up signing Brazilian Gabriel Jesus from Arsenal to lead their attack this season.<\/p>\n

Lautaro also touched on the volatile nature of football, refusing to rule out future changes entirely before once again reaffirming his bond with Inter.<\/p>\n

He explained: “We all know that in the world of football, when you are no longer useful, they ask you to leave. Playing for Inter is a source of pride for me, and I am happy here. I want to stay and continue to develop every day, and compete for the big titles with Inter.”<\/p>\n

You can discuss topics and news in more depth in the Kooora forums<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inter Milan striker Lautaro Martinez has revealed the truth behind reports linking him with Barcelona in the final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,2009,29926,27031,85,1644,17762,265,95,14095],"class_list":["post-79662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-inter","tag-inter-vs-ssc-napoli","tag-l-martinez","tag-laliga","tag-serie-a","tag-ssc-napoli","tag-transfers","tag-valencia","tag-valencia-vs-barcelona"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79662","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=79662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}