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Braithwaite resigns from Barça to sign for Espanyol on a free transfer

BarcelonaMartin Braithwaite has succeeded in fulfilling his wish and will be able to continue living with his family in Barcelona. This Thursday, the Danish striker will terminate the contract that tied him with Barça until 2024 and sign for Espanyol on a free transfer. The striker passed the medical examination this morning at the Clínica Corachán in Barcelona with the permission of Barça, according to ‘Onda Cero’ and was able to form the ARA. It should be remembered that the 31-year-old attacker spent almost all of last year on leave due to a serious knee injury. In the last year, Braithwaite has only played 22 official minutes with Barça, the ones he played in January against Athletic, in the Copa del Rey, and in March against Osasuna, in the League.

Braithwaite, in fact, was already on the verge of leaving Barça just before that fateful injury. In August 2021, however, he told the club that his intention was to succeed as a Blaugrana player. The conviction that he could contribute goals to the club (he has scored 10 in the 58 games played with Barça), the generous contract that Josep Maria Bartomeu had signed for him until 2024 and, especially, the comfort with which they have fitted in at Barcelona both he and his family have led the striker to make it clear that he did not want to move from Camp Nou.

But the interest of Espanyol, which has been reactivated in this final section of the market (Mallorca also wanted him, who could not accept the fee he requested), has convinced the player that leaving Barça might not be a such a bad choice. The attacker will be able to continue living in Barcelona and have more prominence in a club, the blanc-i-blau, which is still waiting to resolve the series on its striker, star, RDT.

Despite having in his squad several players trained in the Barça squad, such as Sergi Gómez, Aleix Vidal or Brian Oliván, Braithwaite will be just the second player to directly change Barça for Espanyol in this 21st century. The last precedent was Dani García, who also made this move as a free agent in the summer of 2004.

Signed by Barça after the ‘no’ for RDT and Joselu

For Espanyol, Braithwaite is an economic option, since he arrives on a free transfer and will only have to accept his salary, which can fit into Diego Martínez’s plans. The Dane scored seven goals in his best season at Barça (2020-21), one fewer than the eight he scored with Leganés in the 2019-20 season. In the 2020 winter market, Barça studied different options to strengthen the striker after learning about the injuries to Dembélé and, especially, Luis Suárez. As the ARA advanced in November 2021, Barça probed RDT, who were upset with Real Madrid for not betting on him. Also in that market, the Blaugrana team asked for Joselu Mato, but the price that Alabès asked for him drove away their interest. The one chosen by Barça, in the end, was Braithwaite, for whom Leganés paid his release clause of 18 million euros.

Trained at Esbjerg and Mitdjylland, two Danish clubs, Braithwaite made the jump to Ligue 1 with Toulouse in 2013. There he experienced the sweetest stage of his career, scoring 40 goals in 149 games which they allowed him to make the jump to the Premier League. Middlesbrough paid 11.3 million in 2017, but a year later (9 goals in 40 matches) he returned to France on loan. Leganés incorporated him in January 2019, first as a loaner and then in ownership, paying 5 million.

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