Iñigo Martínez is in advanced negotiations to leave Barcelona and join Cristiano Ronaldo at Al Nassr, a source told ESPN.

The Basque centre-back has a contract with the Catalan club until June 2026, but Barça are willing to facilitate his departure as a free agent.

The source said that the 34-year-old defender already received a tempting offer from the Saudi Pro League last summer, but at the time Barcelona’s sporting director Deco convinced him to stay.

Iñigo’s departure would not provide a direct injection of cash for Barcelona, but would free up a significant amount of salary to register other players.

Barcelona are not yet in compliance with the 1-1 rule (which allows 100% of the money received from player registrations to be used), but they could use 60% of Iñigo’s salary to register other players.

With nine days to go before the start of LaLiga, Barcelona has still not been able to register Joan García, Wojciech Szczesny, Marcus Rashford, Gerard Martín and Marc Bernal (both of whom will be registered with the first team), Roony Bardghji, as well as Hector Fort and Oriol Romeu, with the last two not being in Hansi Flick’s plans.

Iñigo’s departure is a significant loss from a sporting point of view, as the centre-back was a regular starter for Flick in the heart of the defence alongside youngster Pau Cubarsí last season, helping them to win the LaLiga and Copa del Rey titles.

Iñigo arrived at Barça in the summer of 2023 as a free agent after ending his contract with Athletic Club. His first season was marred by injuries, but last season he played 46 games.

Flick also has Ronald Araújo and Eric García to fill the centre of defence and will also welcome back Andreas Christensen, who missed much of last season due to injury.