To confront a young fan in furious spat

Barcelona star Inigo Martinez left Athletic Bilbao for Barcelona over the summer and could be seen going face-to-face with a youngster believed to be a fan of his former club, Tom Victor reports for Mirror UK

Barcelona star Inigo Martinez was filmed leaving his car and confronting a young football fan on the side of the road.

Reports indicate the youngster supported Athletic Bilbao. Martinez, who joined Barca over the summer, had previously spent five years on athletics books after starting his career with rivals Real Sociedad.

In a clip shared on social media with the caption, ‘If you leave Athletic, you end up losing,’ Spain international Martinez can be seen stopping his Range Rover in the middle of the road before the fan walks in his direction. The 32-year-old then gesticulates and exchanges words with the youngster before returning to his vehicle.

It is not clear at the time of writing when exactly the encounter took place. Martinez played 90 minutes over the weekend as Barcelona scraped a 1-0 win against Las Palmas to stay on track for Champions League qualification.

Barcelona’s victory on Saturday ensures they ended the weekend second in the league. Girona, their rivals for the second spot, claimed a narrow win against Real Betis, with Cristhian Stuani bagging a last-minute winner.

The Catalan club will part ways with manager Xavi at the end of the season. The former club captain led his team to the title last term but has decided his time at Camp Nou is up.

Despite the impending changes in the dugout, though, Barca has progressed to a Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain. Martinez started the first leg of the round-of-16 victory over Napoli but was on the bench for the second-leg victory, which captain Sergi Roberto hailed.

“An incredible night, it’s been four years away from being where this club should be,” Sergi Roberto said. Very happy. Let’s enjoy this moment. The fans have been with us, and that is very important.

“The Camp Nou is very different, but we need this atmosphere in every game. Thank you to the fans. We started well and, in the end, we got good results and were very happy. I think that we already had a tremendous first half in Naples. We needed to finish with goals like today. Usually, a team like Napoli can score against you.

“I could have scored, but the play went perfectly. I saw that Robert [Lewandowski] was alone at the penalty spot, and I’m happy to assist him.”