After Atlanta United concluded their 2022 season with a 2-1 home loss against New York City FC, star forward Josef Martinez wasn't in the mood to talk following what could be his final game with the Five Stripes.
When approached by reporters on Decision Day, Martinez told the group to "talk to Bocanegra and Pineda instead."
Carlos Bocanegra is the club's vice president and technical director, while Gonzalo Pineda is the head coach. Martinez has one year left on his contract (runs through 2023) and has been unhappy over the last few months as rumors swirl over his future.
Martinez had already requested a meeting with the front office to discuss his future at the club. He didn't start any of the club’s last eight matches of the season and only three of the final 15. Martinez was suspended for conduct detrimental to the team in September, reportedly for an outburst that included flipping a table of post-game food after a loss at the Portland Timbers.
After the suspension was announced, Pineda admitted there had been "multiple cases or situations" of "bad behavior" with Martinez.
Brazilian winger Luiz Araujo, a Designated Player alongside the Venezuelan international No. 9, dismissed any notion of "stress" around Martinez's situation impacting the team.
“No, Josef is a great player, one of the best players in MLS," Araujo said. "He’s a king here in Atlanta. But we are professionals. We know what we have to do on the field. The off-the-field things are for Carlos or Gonzalo to solve and we have to be concentrated, focused when we enter the field.”
Martinez has been one of MLS's biggest stars since joining Atlanta for their expansion season in 2017. He led the club to 2018 MLS Cup and the US Open Cup and Campeones Cup in 2019. He is a former MLS MVP and MLS Cup MVP, scoring 98 goals in 134 regular-season appearances.
The 29-year-old hasn't been the same since a torn ACL cost him almost all of 2020 and complications from that injury have lingered over the last two years. He had 77g/11a in his first 83 regular-season matches and then 21 goals in his last 51 games.
With his contract up in a year and being relegated to a bench role at the end of this season, Martinez and Atlanta enter a crucial period this winter. Atlanta also have to appoint a new club president after Darren Eales left for Newcastle United in August.
"I don't know the answer to that," Pineda told reporters when asked last weekend if Martinez would be back in 2023. "There are many things in place with me, with many players, with the roster, with everything."
Thiago Almada and Marcelino Moreno also declined to talk to media on Sunday, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Doug Roberson.
