Martin Braithwaite
Striker joins Barcelona in shock transfer
“It was a surprise, but at the same time not so much because I have always had the ambition to play at this level”
If there was a prize awarded for the most surprising transfer of 2020, Martin Braithwaite would already be on the winner’s podium, celebrating a hands-down victory. Not only did he leave Liga strugglers Leganes for defending champions Barcelona, he made the move outside of the regular window after Barca were granted special dispensation to sign a forward following a season-ending injury to French starlet Ousmane Dembele.
And so it was that a striker who struggled to establish himself during two seasons with Middlesbrough found himself playing in the against Real Madrid in March after a campaign spent battling against relegation.
“It was a surprise, but at the same time not so much because I have always had the ambition to play at this level,” Braithwaite said during his presentation at Camp Nou.
“I am a strong player, fast, physical. My main characteristic is that I like to study the play. Barcelona play the best football in the world. I have spent the last two days studying the way they play and I will keep doing it.”
As Barcelona coach Quique Setien quite simply put it: “He fits our needs.”
A combination of injuries, bad luck and poor transfer policy had left Barca short of firepower. Abel Ruiz and Carles Perez were moved on, to Braga and Roma respectively, during the January transfer window, despite the club being told in early January that Luis Suarez would be sidelined for up to four months with a knee injury.
But Dembele’s injury – he is out for six months after tearing a hamstring in training in early February – opened up a possible loophole. Under new Liga regulations, clubs are permitted to sign an emergency replacement for any player injured outside of the window.
With the transfer window closed, Leganes’ energies were focused on their fight to stay in the top flight, but they were powerless to prevent Barca paying the €20million release clause for a player who had been their record signing at €5m last summer.
The double whammy for Leganes was that not only would they be losing their top scorer, under Liga rules they were also unable to sign a replacement. Braithwaite’s six league goals this season had given them hope of avoiding the drop and they had already also lost another striker, with Youssef En-Nesyri joining Sevilla in January.
Barcelona had considered an approach for Getafe’s Angel Rodriguez who, at between €6m and €8m, was a cheaper option. However, at 32 he is also four years older than Braithwaite who, despite being seen as a short-term fix, signed a four-and-a-half year contract.
Signed too late to play in the
Champions League, and with Barca out of the Copa del Rey, the Denmark international would only be available for the remaining 14 Liga games this season.
Although the expectation is that he will feature mostly as a substitute, the transfer represented a major upturn in fortunes for a player who struggled to fit in at Middlesbrough under successive managers Garry Monk and Tony Pulis. Loaned out to French side Bordeaux and then Leganes, the former Toulouse man performed well enough in La Liga
to persuade Leganes to make the deal permanent in July.
Born in Esbjerg to a Danish mother and Guyanese father, Braithwaite enjoyed an impressive autumn for both club and country, with his goals in the Euro 2020 qualifiers against Gibraltar and Republic of Ireland shoring up his chances of inclusion in the Danish squad for the Euro finals.
An eloquent interviewee who began donating £1,000 to charity for every goal scored while with Toulouse, he has so far taken the move to Barcelona in his stride. His appeal to Setien and the Barca coaching staff is that he is a clever player who belies the image as a target man and is able to run the channels and track back from wide positions.
Braithwaite almost had a dramatic impact in the Clasico at the Bernabeu in March when he appeared as a substitute midway through the second half. Shortly before Real Madrid took the lead through Brazilian teenager Vinicius Junior, he broke clear on the right-hand side of
Madrid’s penalty area, only for keeper Thibaut Courtois to snaffle his shot.
In the end Madrid, having neutralised Lionel Messi, ran out 2-0 winners thanks to a late, second goal from Mariano Diaz and leapfrogged Barcelona at the top of the league.
There will, however, doubtless be further opportunities in a Barca shirt.
And after such a surprising turn of events, don’t bet against Martin Braithwaite having the last laugh.