Laporta confirms direct call to Marotta over Lautaro Martinez after missing out on Alvarez

Laporta says Marotta shut down Lautaro enquiry in one call

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has admitted he wanted to bring Lautaro Martinez to the club in the summer after missing out on Julian Alvarez, and revealed a direct phone conversation with Inter that ended the interest within seconds.

Lautaro has been regularly linked with Barcelona over the years and this summer was no exception. After failing to land Julian Alvarez, Laporta made contact with Inter to test the waters for the Argentina international.

‘He didn’t even let me finish talking’

Speaking to Corriere della Sera, Laporta detailed the exchange with Inter CEO Beppe Marotta:

"I’ll tell you how it went. One day I called Beppe Marotta on the phone: me and him, without intermediaries. I told him that I would like to have Lautaro in my team and that I admired the boy so much. But he didn’t even let me finish talking. He told me clearly that the player was not for sale. And that he would not be the one to decide whether to move or not."

Laporta added that he respected Marotta’s position and the relationship between the two clubs.

"And so I stopped all the reasoning, there was no way to continue. There is a relationship of mutual trust between me and Marotta, we have not gone any further out of respect for him and Inter."

Barcelona’s alternative summer moves

With Lautaro unavailable, Barcelona changed shape rather than force a marquee signing late in the window. The club ended up switching Raphinha to the No. 9 position and bringing in Gabriel Jesus from Arsenal in a late move before the summer window closed.