Barcelona target Lautaro Martinez was offered to Atletico Madrid for €8m, claims agent

Lautaro Martínez's future is currently the trending topic in European football. The Argentine has been Barcelona's primary target for the upcoming summer transfer window after his stunning performance for Inter Milan in the Serie A this season. However, if El Toro's agent, Luiz Rizzi, is to be believed, then this transfer deal could get very complicated now.

Lautaro's agent spoke about the broken deal with Atletico and his move to Barcelona

Rizzi spoke about the transfer deal between Lautaro Martinez and Atletico Madrid. He also spoke about how the deal could have been a bargain for Atletico at that time, and will now go on to become one of the biggest in European football.

"I offered Lautaro to Atletico in January 2018, it cost 8 million, it was the price of his termination clause, although they did not reach something concrete, it is now going to cost Barcelona a lot of money

Atletico had practically tied to the Argentine. How would the matter be?, How close would he be to Atlético de Madrid? Simeone himself who never talks about non-club players made evaluations of him. That has to speak for how close they were to get him."

Simeone himself had spoken to Martinez back in 2018

"The Atletico came to talk to Racing de Avellaneda, the player himself spoke Simeone , the officers said that the deal was done, the player who was "now their" ... but no. The Lautaro said that he did not want to leave Racing badly, and the deal broke down."

If Inter Milan keep on saying Barcelona will have to pay Lautaro Martínez' release clause of 111 million euros, the solution is a matter of time. Barcelona will simply wait until mid-July, when the clause expires. The obstacle will be gone then. [md] pic.twitter.com/JeV3A1zSPG

— barcacentre (from 🏡) (@barcacentre) May 29, 2020

"As a result, the aforementioned new contract was signed with a clause that went up and that was paid by Inter. Things could have been really different, who knows? He could have been playing for Atletico Madrid under Simeone."

Barcelona among a host of other European clubs looking to sign the Argentine sensation

Real Madrid may see an opening to make a push for Lautaro Martinez, especially if they cannot bring in Kylian Mbappe from Paris Saint-Germain. Or they may simply be try and put pressure on their rivals Barcelona, raising the players evaluation even further. In any case, the Catalan club seem to be in pole position to sign the player right now.

Lautaro Martínez would not leave for any team other than Barcelona. It seems like Barça have beaten Real Madrid and Manchester City in the race to sign the Inter Milan striker. [gds] pic.twitter.com/a4m0i3fuJd

— barcacentre (from 🏡) (@barcacentre) March 30, 2020

Amidst all the speculation, many media handles reported that the player has already signed a deal with Barcelona and is waiting for Inter Milan to complete the negotiations with the Spanish giants.

Higher-ups at Barcelona think of Martinez as the best replacement for Luiz Suarez

Lautaro Martinez has been in stunning form this season having netted twenty-two goals in his thirty-one appearances for Inter Milan in all competitions this season. Barcelona feels that Martinez will be the perfect successor to Uruguayan striker Luiz Suarez.

It will be interesting to see if Barcelona can match the 111€ million price tag set for Lautaro Martinez by Inter Milan. However, one can only imagine, what would have happened if the Catalunya's giants would have tried to get their man when he was valued at 8€ million.