Gerard Martín takes the jokes in the Barça dressing room to heart

BarcelonaAbout 15 kilometers, up and down the A-2, are what separate the Martín Langreo residence at the Joan Gamper Sports City, In Sant Joan Despí. This is the route that Gerard, one of the family's twin sons, has taken every day to get to work for just over two years. Until then, he extended his journey slightly along the same highway to Cornellà de Llobregat, where he learned the trade of football, and then in the opposite direction to Igualada, where he studied business administration.

The A-2 is the road that thousands of Catalans routinely take to pursue their dreams and earn a living. Truck drivers, surgeons, teachers, factory workers, cooks... professionals of all kinds spend hours and hours of their lives on that asphalt. Gerard, too, a worker, has been traveling among trucks for more than five years and enduring rush hour traffic jams to get from home to work and from work to home, where he eats what his parents—his mother a computer programmer and his father a salesman in the food sector—put on his plate and retreats to the room where he grew up. The only thing that's changed at first glance is the vehicle he drives—he's gone from a beat-up Seat Toledo to an elegant company car—and that every now and then, during his free time, people stop him in the street to ask for photos and autographs.

Although he tries hard to stay out of the spotlight, being a regular in Barça's first team is starting to take its toll on Gerard Martín's daily life. About to turn 24, the Barcelona-born defender embodies the triumph of the working classAs the club itself praised a few days ago in a social media post, he arrived at his beloved club through the back door, when he was beginning to think that football would be more of a hobby than the center of his life. Now, Barcelona fans have grown accustomed to seeing him in the starting eleven. Hansi Flick rescued him in the summer of 2024 after just one season with the reserve team and believed in his potential to give Alejandro Balde a break at left-back. Months later, Gerard renewed his contract until 2028, started in a Copa del Rey final won against Real Madrid, and helped secure a place in the Champions League final with two brilliant assists (and a foul against them that wasn't given) on a night to forget in Milan.

No training until the last tour

With three titles under his belt, Gerard continues his steady progress. He's on the A-2 and any other road he's taken to. He's gone from being a reliable backup in Balde to racking up five consecutive starts (five wins) as a left-sided center-back. He hasn't wasted the instability of a position that has seen the traumatic departure of a captain without the armband like Iñigo Martínez, the inconsistent form of a veteran like Andreas Christensen, the mental health struggles of a giant like Ronald Araujo, and the temporary adaptation of a utility player like Eric Garcia. Silent, astute, and dependable (his only wrist injury came in an accidental collision), he's starting to make the joke about him a reality. Gerard Maldini in reference to the legendary Italian defender. In fact, the partnership he forms in central defense with Pau Cubarsí takes the wordplay a step further, since the young man from Estanyol's surname also recalls that of another famous former Milan center-back from the 90s: from Cubarsí to Cubaresis (In homage to Franco Baresi).

Jokes and comparisons aside, Flick celebrates the discovery. "Gerard gives us more opportunities to play the ball out from the back," says the German coach, who sees in the Barcelona native a center-back as capable of winning aerial and ground duels as he is of dribbling and finding passes to launch attacks from defensive positions. Against Eintracht Frankfurt He even attempted a long-range shot that forced Michael Zetterer to dive to the top corner. He's learned all this in just a few months, as his experience as a center-back at Cornellà was primarily with back fives and threes. Furthermore, according to sources close to the dressing room who spoke to ARA, Flick didn't try him in the center of defense in any training session last season. His first foray into this role with the advanced back line was during the summer tour in Asia, while Iñigo Martínez was negotiating with the Saudis. Gerard Martín's resume, therefore, is overflowing with improvisation and adaptability. Ferma is a strong contender for employee of the month at Barça.