Martin Zubimendi reveals why he rejected Arsenal and Liverpool

Tom Weber

Updated: 4 Sept 2024 16:44 BST
3 min read

Martin Zubimendi, Arsenal, Liverpool — © IMAGO

Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi has opened up on his decision to reject a summer transfer.

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The 25-year-old has been one of Spain's hottest commodities for some time. Arsenal are long-time admirers of Zubimendi and there was an expectation that the Gunners would move for him this summer.

This never materialised, however. FootballTransfers exclusively revealed that this was because the player didn't get back to Arsenal despite there being a broad agreement on contract terms.

Later on, Liverpool tried their luck and Real Sociedad even expected the player to agree to the move. However, after launching a charm offensive, the Basque side managed to get their hometown hero to stay on board.

Signing Zubimendi has always been contingent on being able to convince him to leave his boyhood club and so far, no interested club has managed to achieve this.

Zubimendi breaks silence

Now, the midfielder has broken his silence on his decision to once again stay put in the face of significant interest. Speaking to MARCA, Zubimendi said: "For me, Real Sociedad is my life, I think I've spent half my life there. A large percentage of who I am is part of Real Sociedad, it's my life."

The San Sebastian-born star initially came through at Antiguoko, a former feeder club of Basque rivals Athletic Club and the same side that nurtured the likes of Xabi Alonso, Andoni Iraola and Mikel Arteta.

However, rather than moving to Bilbao, he remained in his hometown and joined Real Sociedad at age 12. Since then, he has gone on to make almost 150 senior appearances for Erreala and seen many a star player like Martin Odegaard, Mikel Merino, Takefusa Kubo and Alexander Isak develop.

Zubimendi currently looks on track to go down in history as one of the great one-club men of Spanish football. However, the 25-year-old still has many years ahead of him and many tempting possibilities are sure to emerge in the future.