Jackson Martínez, on his time at Atleti: "I needed to play more"

At 34 years of age, Jackson Martinez is living an ordeal. At the moment, the Colombian is 'begging' for a contract in Portugal to continue playing at professional level.

He was at Portimonense last season and his contract expired, so he is free and can negotiate with anyone. But there is no one interested in him.

This is shocking if we go back to the past. The player, who left Porto, arrived at Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2015 for 35 million.

A lot was expected of him, but his signing was a real failure. Five years later, Jackson Martínez explained his tortuous passage through the Madrid club.

"I arrived in Madrid with tremendous enthusiasm and I noticed that Simeone had it too. He said he believed in everything I could give Atletico and tried to make me the player I needed to be, but I couldn't fit into the system because of various circumstances," the player began by saying in 'AS'.

"I don't make excuses, but I wish things had gone differently. Still, I thank the Atlético fans, who have always been kind to me. It was a pity that I got injured when I felt more adapted," he added.

Finally, the Colombian clarified his relationship with Simeone and explained what he lacked to succeed. "I lacked to stay and play more. When a club contracts a player it is because it knows what it can receive and it has to be patient, but I did not have that opportunity and that I said to Simeone. I said to him 'give me games'. At Porto I always played... I respected his way of thinking, there was never any problem between us," he concluded.