Miguel Herrera had the last say in Roger Martinez case with América
Club América’s current head coach said that it wasn't his decision to separate the Colombian player because his boss told him Martínez was trying to leave.
Roger Martínez did not play with Club América in the first eight games of the season because he was allegedly trying to leave the team in January during the winter transfer window. So when the player notified the club, América’s bosses told Miguel Herrera he couldn’t play Martínez until the situation was resolved.
During an interview with TUDN, Herrera said that the Colombian winger didn’t play in the beginning because he was trying to leave the club. “There wasn’t an offer from Boca Juniors or Genoa for Roger Martínez. The Serie A team talked with him about a loan but the offer was not right so América didn’t accept. Martínez wanted to go to Italy but the offer was the negotiations fell apart.”
“Once we found out that he was going to stay we wanted to use the player because he is important to us but he was never grounded for wanting to leave,” said Herrera.
Miguel Herrera also said that Martínez wanted to go back to Europe, so an offer from a club on the American continent was not good enough for him. Herrera added that the only real offer from a non-European team was from Inter Miami.
“Roger wanted to go to Europe without having a concrete deal, the only real option he had to leave América was Inter Miami but he didn’t want to accept it. Once everything got resolved I called him to the first team because he is an important player to us.”
Before Martínez played a few minutes against Pumas on week 9 of the Clausura 2020, his last real game was in last year’s final when América lost against Monterrey in December.