Portugal international Gelson Martins joins Atletico Madrid

Gelson Martins, 23, has completed his move to Atletico Madrid, with an agreement with Sporting unable to be reached.

Gelson was one of the nine players to unilaterally terminate their contract with Sporting after the violent scenes at Sporting's training ground, and Atletico, despite negotiations with Sporting to pay the Portuguese club directly to avoid the situation being taken to the courts, failed to come to an agreement, meaning that Atletico sign the Portuguese international for free.

It seemed that the Portuguese winger did not want to leave Sporting on bad terms if Bruno de Carvalho, the ex-Sporting president, resigned, and, after his dismissal, Gelson would have surely wanted the clubs to reach a financial agreement to ensure that Sporting were compensated for the loss of one of their prize assets.

But with no such financial settlement in place, Sporting CP intend on taking the situation to FIFA by making an official complaint. Indeed, in a similar manner to the situation with Rui Patricio, Sporting will be willing to take this situation to the courts if they still do not reach the compensation agreement they are looking for with Atletico Madrid. 

Gelson joins the Spanish giants on a six-year contract having spent three seasons at Sporting CP.