Barcelona and Bayern Munich have entered the race to sign Sporting Lisbon’s Gelson Martins before his £53million release clause expires during the summer. The winger has established himself as one of the top players in Portugal and has gone on to net 5 goals from 21 League games for Lisbon this season.

Cristiano Ronaldo reportedly rates him so highly that the Portuguese icon advised Real Madrid to enter the race. TalkSport claims that Martins will not have a price after the world cup this summer. This means that his £53million release clause can only be activated before the world cup starts.

After the tournament, clubs who are interested in luring the 22-year-old will have to negotiate directly with Sporting, who are likely to demand a higher amount considering the attention which the player is receiving. If Portugal have a good run in the world cup and the Martins release clause is not activated before then, his price will rise rapidly.

£53million is a moderate sum of money by today’s standards and we will have to act quickly if we are to sign Martins, especially with the competition that we are facing. Martins hails from the same academy that produced the likes of Ronaldo as well as Luis Figo and it’s not hard to see why the player is so highly rated.

However, one could argue that we should rather invest the money in bolstering our goalkeeping department and the defence which has let us down this season.

With Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as options out wide, it also remains to be seen whether Martins would be able to settle into life at Anfield and win regular first-team game time.

There is always a chance that he could end up in a similar situation that Renato Sanches ended up in at Bayern. Following a successful Euro 2016 tournament during which he earned himself the best young player of the tournament award, Sanches struggled to deliver for Bayern last season and was subsequently loaned out to Swansea last summer.

Would you like to see Martins at Liverpool?