Josef Martinez has been suspended for one week by Atlanta United, the club announced on Wednesday.
The suspension to the Venezuela striker is due to "conduct detrimental to the team" and the 2018 MLS Most Valuable Player will miss Saturday's date with Toronto FC.
Multiple sources tell The Athletic's Felipe Cardenas that Martinez was suspended after an altercation with head coach Gonzalo Pineda following Sunday's 2-1 loss to the Portland Timbers. Martinez reportedly knocked over a table in the visitors' locker room prompting Pineda to confront his player. The two had to be physically separated from one another.
“[Martínez] just knocks it all over and there’s chicken and rice all over the locker room,” a witness to the incident told Cardenas.
Martinez is in his sixth season with the club. He's appeared in 22 games in 2022, but started only 12. Martinez missed considerable time at the start of the campaign with knee surgery and has not featured as prominently as he has in past seasons, scoring only eight goals this season and putting him on pace for a career-low goals output in a full season in MLS. From 2017 to 2019, Martinez scored a combined 77 goals.
Atlanta sits 11th in the Eastern Conference and five points back of New England Revolution for the final playoff spot. The team appears primed to miss the postseason for a second consecutive year.
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