Santander League: The Braithwaite Fight | LaLiga Santander 2019

The Danish, who spent two years in a wheelchair as a child, promotes racial inclusion with real estate developments in the United States

Mathilde Braithwaite had no doubts. It was made with the official shirt of the Football Club Barcelona and was worn and proud to the institute, the Rybners Gymnasier of Esbjerg (Denmark). There, on the shores of the North Sea, he had also studied Mathilde's older brother, Martin Braithwaite (1991). The family, already accustomed to the real estate successes in the United States of the entrepreneur Philip Michael, uncle of the footballer, still tries to get the idea of ​​what happened in recent weeks. The maternal grandfather, Frede Christensen, director for three decades of the kitchen and bathroom chain HTH Køkkener, is not tired of proudly reviewing videos and old photographs of little Martin. No one forgets that, as a child, He was bedridden for two years because of Legg-Calvé-Perthes Syndrome, a childhood disorder in which blood supply to the spherical part of the hip is interrupted. Its history reaches the Bernabéu.

The poor planning led by Josep Maria Bartomeu – president and vice president of sports of Barcelona – and executed from the technical secretariat by Eric Abidal and Ramon Planes, left the team with the post after the long-term injuries of Luis Suarez and, above all by Ousmane Dembélé. Ditching the winter market without reinforcements for this season – the Portuguese Trincao and the Brazilian Matheus Fernandes signed for the next course – forced Barcelona to seek emergency solutions once the League's medical commission accepted that the Dembélé would not play again this season . The solution was to pay the Leganés the rescission clause of Martin Braithwaite (18 million euros), sign it for four and a half seasons to minimize depreciation, and warn you that a good Eurocup with Denmark could lead to a sale to the highest bidder.

Although Braithwaite has arrived at Camp Nou with the ambition to stay. Such is the motivation shown in training that even opposes taking a place in the classic against Real Madrid.

Wait for your fourth child

Quique Setién, who in the meetings against Eibar and Naples chose to deconstruct Arturo Vidal so that the Chilean exercised as an extreme, did not overlook the irruption of the Danish striker at his premiere at Camp Nou. In 20 minutes Braithwaite had time to participate in two goals and also to receive the blessing of the pantocrator of Rosario. “If football were a religion, Messi would be God,” said Braithwaite to the official media of the Barça club. Luis Suárez, the other great leader of the booth, gathered in RAC-1 the sensations of the costumes before the arrival of the attacker: «We have talked with the partners. Martin is going to surprise. Many people only notice that it comes from Leganés, but has a great curriculum with the national team (international 39 times, participated in the four games of Denmark in the World Cup in Russia). With the players you will have here you can show that you have potential ».

Braithwaite, as a newcomer, occupies one of the corners of the Barca wardrobe. His ticket office is next to that of youngster Ansu Fati. On the day of his presentation he went with his three children, all of them with a careful afro hair, the same hairstyle he had worn until alopecia gained ground. There was also her partner, the Frenchwoman Anne-Laure Louis, whom Braithwaite met during her time in Toulouse while she worked as a journalist. Both wait for the next month of April to their fourth child.

Luther King and Muhammad Ali as referents

The first thing the player did after signing his signing for Barcelona was to call his mother, Heidi Christensen, a former Danish handball player who met Keith Braithwaite, Martin's father, while working as au pair in United States. Keith was born in Guyana, a former British colony on the north coast of South America with just under 800,000 inhabitants.

Racial inequalities were always in the head of Martin Braithwaite, hence their references in sport, and in life, be Muhammad Ali and Luther King. Yes, named Martin. As the. As for music, the player is not dragged by the new times of the autotune. He admires the sound of the Motown. The soul of The Temptations.

«I am living a dream», is what Braithwaite repeats again and again, both inside and outside the club. And this has little to do with the increase of his emoluments as a professional by becoming part of a club of the football bourgeoisie. In recent years, Braithwaite has partnered with his uncle Philip Michael. He, a former journalist and former boxing commentator, emigrated to New York in 2014 and taught in a book how to “multiply net worth by 18 months” thanks to real estate. Uncle and nephew are carrying out several real estate developments on American soil. How a smart housing project for students at Temple University in Philadelphia. Or the construction in Jersey of the so-called Summit building, skyscrapers for young people at risk of social exclusion. With racial integration always in mind.

Braithwaite is much more than that ovation with pleasure to chirigota with which he was received in his debut at the Camp Nou.