New Barcelona signing Jeremy Mathieu has said that while his chance to play for a club that size has come late in his career, he’ll still relish it.
Mathieu yesterday completed his move to Camp Nou from Valencia after Barca triggered his €20m release clause and signed the Frenchman to a four-year contract.
There has been some surprise that Barca were willing to pay so much for a player who turns 31 in October, and tie him to such a long contract, but Mathieu insists his age is not a factor.
“Coming here is a result of the effort of my career. I’ve worked hard to be here,” Marca reports Mathieu saying at a Press conference.
“The opportunity is a little late but it’s there. I’m going to enjoy it as much as possible. I come to the best club in the world at the best moment of my career.”
Mathieu added that as far as he is concerned, he’s been signed as a centre-back, not a left-back, and revealed a little about the timeline of the transfer.
He was supposed to travel to South America with Valencia and was on his way to Peru via Madrid when the call came to stop and travel to Catalonia instead.
“I talked to Luis Enrique a month-and-a-half ago and he told me to come here and come as a centre-back,” Mathieu continued.
“He has given me a lot of confidence and I’m happy about that. I hope I can reciprocate that trust.
“It has been a difficult time. But until the last minute I was waiting for the call to stay and not go on tour with Valencia. I’m very happy.
“I feel more comfortable as a centre-back and I come here to play centrally, but it is the Coach who decides. I come to play with quality and give the maximum possible. I come to win. The most important thing is to win.”
Mathieu is the first central defender to join the senior squad at Barca in a couple of years and arrives following the retirement of captain Carles Puyol, but replacing the iconic skipper isn’t something that concerns the France international.
“I like playing with pressure. I have no fear. I know it was Puyol before and he has been very great, and, for my part, I hope to have the same trajectory,” he said.
“I’ll give my best and I hope you have spent well.”
