Barcelona striker Martin Braithwaite has revealed he did not tell anyone about his transfer to the Camp Nou until it was confirmed.
The Denmark international joined the Catalan giants in a February transfer from Leganes – controversial as it was an emergency transfer, allowed due to a long-term injury to Ousmane Dembele earlier that month, leaving Lega unable to sign a replacement.
Formerly of Middlesbrough, Braithwaite has penned a four-and-a-half year contract at Barcelona in a deal which will contain a €300m release clause after the club were granted an emergency transfer by the authorities.
This ruling provoked some controversy, as Lega were powerless to stop Braithwaite leaving – due to his release clause being activated – but were then unable to sign a replacement themselves.
Braithwaite had netted six goals and provided one assist for struggling Lega across 24 La Liga appearances this campaign before moving to the Camp Nou two months ago.
“I just felt, you know, that I am going to wait and see how this goes,” Braithwaite told an interview with Barcelona correspondent Samuel Marsden of ESPN. “If it’s gonna get 100% serious, then I will let [my wife] know, but there’s no reason to get people around me excited. I got excited, but I knew if I told people they were gonna be talking about it every day.
“For me, I was at Leganes, I had to perform. When I am at a place, I give 100%, so I didn’t want to put my mind elsewhere.
“Usually I tell everything to my wife, but she only knew three days before I signed because it suddenly got leaked in the media. It got leaked in the morning and I didn’t see her until the evening, when I told her I had to talk to her. She knew why. She understood!”
A report in Diario Sport last month spoke of interest from Everton and West Ham in the striker, but he sees his future in Catalonia.
“I am sure I am going to stay even more than four-and-a-half years that’s how I see it in my head,” he continued. “Right now, I just want to go and play and enjoy and win titles with this team because that’s what I am here to do.
“For me, at Barcelona, I am looking at all these legendary players that played here, and all the periods where they had some of the best teams, and for me one of the goals is to be able to say I played in one of the best Barca teams in a generation.
“I want people to be able to look back at the team I played in and say ‘Yeah, that was one of the best teams there have been in Barca’s history.’ That’s a huge motivation for me and it comes with a lot of hard work, but I am willing to put in the work. I am just excited.”
