Arsenal believes that they acquire one of the world's best midfielders in Martin Zubimendi and they are not the only ones. After also coveted by Liverpool, Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona, his elite references are clear.
Zubimendi won the European Championship with Spain last year and flourished both in its own country and international, so Boyhood Club would win Real Sociedad silverware in the Copa del Rey and played a key role in their return to the Champions League last year.
There is certainly a lot of him fun. The 26-year-old excels in and out, marries intelligence and excellent technology with misleading physicality at the base of midfield, where he acts as a passing metronome and a screen for his defense.
But that's not all. The impression left behind by speaking with his former coaches and teammates is of a player who is also defined as his technical and physical properties due to his character strength.
“The first thing that has to say about Martin is that he is a complete person and is a complete player,” says Aitor Zulaika, a former real Sociedad coach who worked closely with Zubimendi as an assistant to Xabi Alonso in the B team of the club, to Sky Sports.
“He has four characteristics that are not easy to bring together. He is a very modest and simple person, but he is also very proud and has a really strong personality. You don't find players together with all those qualities together. Martin is one.”
Benoit Cachenaut, a center-back that played with a teenager Zubimendi in the C-team of Real Sociedad, uses the same word to summarize him. “He was always a very complete player,” he tells Sky Sports. “Technical, fast, intelligent, powerful.
“You could already see that he had everything to get to the highest level. But also very well on the field, he was a very modest guy, always smiling, always very friendly.”
Cachenaaut remembers a visit from Zubimendi while he was locked up in the hospital after a knee operation. “He was one of the few teammates who came to see me,” he says. It was typical for a player who is known for an extra step on the field and that. “
“He was a very disciplined man who was very serious about his work,” Zulaika adds. “He was smart, he listened to his coaches and he was polite and respectful with everyone.”
He made a similar impression on Carlos Martinez, a former right back with more than 200 performances for Real Sociedad.
“As soon as we saw him all playing, we could see that he had something else, something that attracts the attention of those among us who play football,” he says Sky Sports. “It's just the way he moves the ball and the personality he even showed at such a young age.
An exemplary professional, Zubimendi continued with more than 200 senior performances for Real Sociedad. His personality is now an important part of his profession to Arsenal.
The club needs a player with his profile in the No. 6 roll. “They still don't have a deep midfielder who can take the ball on the rear,” said Sky Sports Pundit Gary Neville recently.
But they also need someone to replace the experience and leadership that they will lose with the approaching departure of Jorginho. Zubimendi, although seven years younger, fits the bill that the entire example led during his time at Real Sociedad.
It is crucial that he also fits well with the manager of Arsenal, with whom he shares a common basis. Mikel Arteta grew up just like Zubimendi in the city of San Sebastian and played for Real Sociedad. They even started in the same youth club named Antiguoko.
'More as Alonso than Arteta'
From the start of his time, Arteta was seen as a future star at Antiguoko and continued with the La Masia Academy in Barcelona, but Zubimendi, but initially did not stand out.
“He was very shy and did not have developed much physically,” recalls Roberto Montiel, the long-term vice president of the club, who coached a young Arteta, recalls Sky Sports.
“Real Sociedad had tried him a few times, but did not sign him,” he adds. “He was not supposed to be at the right level. It was only when he was 14, after we told them that Atletico Madrid was also interested that they decided to take him.”
At that time, Zubimendi was more physically developed and better able to express his talent.
“He could play with both feet, he was a speed and he was always in the right positions on the field,” says Montiel. “He was like Xabi Alonso in the way he saw football.”
And Montiel should know. He coached Alonso in the same youth team as Arteta. Alonso would continue Zubimendi in the B team of Real Sociedad. The Antiguoko connection continues, but five years later Zubimendi is preparing to work with Arteta in Arsenal.
“I would say that Martin looked more like Xabi than Mikel, both as a boy and a player,” says Montiel.
“Just like Xabi, he was a great passer-by who made good decisions. He won the ball well and knew how to protect him. But he was also a bit of an introverted, similar to Xabi, while Mikel was all-in. So Martin could go a bit unnoticed.”
It all changed to the Academy of Real Sociedad, where Zubimendi grew both in trust and physical shape. “He was already a very good player for them in his first year, but it was in his second, like a U16 that he really exploded,” Montiel recalls.
“It was pretty clear to everyone from the club that he would reach the first team,” adds Zulaika. “The qualities he then showed were similar to the one you see now. He is so good with the ball that the game controls.
“But he also defends brilliantly. He is good in all aspects. He can pass for a short or long way, he can break lines by driving ahead with the ball, he gets shots, he runs many kilometers, he cuts so much passes on the floor and in the air.
“When he took the step to go with us in Real Sociedad B, he was a young player who played with boys who were three or four years older than he, but it didn't shot him at all.
“He wasn't really a talker, but that was understandable as he mixed with more senior players. He talked to the ball. It didn't take long to win his place in the team. When he had it, nobody could pick it up from him.”
Zubimendi became important at the first team level in the same way and played more minutes for Real Sociedad than any other outfield player in the past three seasons.
But the best demonstration of his ability to excel under pressure came on the international stage last year, when he seamlessly stepped in for the injured Rodri during the half -time of the final of the European Championship of Spain in England in Germany.
Martinez blows his cheeks out of it. “You saw how prepared he was to take the ball, drive ahead, be brave. He just has so much confidence in his assets.”
“The only reason he didn't start was because he was in his position behind the best player in the world,” Zulaika adds. “We were all well aware of his enormous quality, but you have to do it on the biggest stage and that is what he did against England.”
'He could play for every team in the world'
With his full repertoire in the second half in Berlin, Zubimendi broke up challenges, zipped passages through the lines and drives Spain forward in a way that is typical of him.
They are qualities that Arsenal will now want to use. Zubimendi excels in circulating possession and constructing attacks from the base of midfield, just like Thomas Partey and Jorginho, but he is also a brave and progressive passer.
“It was brilliant to play behind him as a central defender because he always asked for the ball and he was never afraid of playing,” says his former teammate Cachenaaut.
It can be seen in the numbers. This season, Zubimendi has sent a higher percentage of the passages than Pedey, Jorginho or Declan Rice, with 31.49 percent. His completion rate is lower, at 84.23 percent, but only because he takes more risks.
From midfielders in Laliga this season, only four, all of whom play for Barcelona, Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid, in Pedri, Federico Valverde, Rodrigo de Paul and Jude Bellingham, have made more progressive steps than Zubimendi.
That level of incision will be valuable for Arsenal, especially after a Premier League season in which they had difficulty breaking down in-depth defenses regularly.
“I think he is a profile of the player they miss,” says Montiel.
“They have Declan Rice, they have Mikel Merino, they have Martin Odegaard, but they miss something when playing the back with one or two touches.
“I think Zubimendi is the kind of player that they need for that. He can play all kinds of passes and moreover he reads the game so well. I think he could really be a good signature for them.”
“Without a doubt,” Zulaika agrees. “Whatever the competition is, whether it is the Premier League, Laliga or the European Championship, he would have a place in every team in the world.
“I can't see much better players in his position.”
“He reminds me a lot of Alonso, who had great success in the Premier League, and he is also very, very tactical,” Martinez adds. “He can come in and cover at the middle, with full-back. He understands the game so well. I don't think he will have problems at all. If you ask me, he is ready.”