Barcelona's Danish forward Martin Braithwaite (L) vies with Osasuna's Argentinian defender Facundo Roncaglia during the Spanish League football match between FC Barcelona and CA Osasuna at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, on November 29, 2020. (Photo by LLUIS GENE / AFP) (Photo by LLUIS GENE/AFP via Getty Images)
According to ESPN (h/t Leeds Live), Leeds United target Martin Braithwaite wants to remain at Barcelona. The Whites were linked with the striker previously who has been on the fringes of Barcelona. Yet to produce much of an effect at the Catalan club, he still wants to stay there.
Martin Braithwaite started his professional career with Esbjerg in his native Denmark, scoring 19 goals in 97 appearances across all competitions. He then moved abroad with French top-flight club Toulouse in the summer of 2013 and went on to register an impressive tally of 40 goals and 15 assists in 149 appearances over the course of four seasons.
The 29-year-old joined Middlesbrough in the EFL Championship in 2017 and scored 5 times in 19 league appearances before joining Bordeaux on loan for the latter half of the 2017-18 campaign. He returned to the Riverside Stadium the following summer but departed on loan once again in January 2019, this time to Leganes in the La Liga.
Braithwaite eventually completed a permanent move to Leganes and went on to register 13 goals and 8 assists in 48 appearances across all competitions before switching boats to join Barcelona in January 2020.
The Dane has only played a bit-part role for the Catalan giants so far, appearing in just 21 outings. Braithwaite is a veteran of the national team with close to 50 appearances and 7 goals.
After 11 games into the season, Leeds United are slowly coming to terms with the harshness of the Premier League. While they have managed to nick 4 wins, they have lost five games.
Quite how they got themselves promoted with just Patrick Bamford as their sole striker is hard to figure out. The Englishman scored a bulk of the team’s goals but this season it is clear that he needs someone else to chip in with the goals occasionally so that he does not burn out in the second half of the season.
While Rodrigo Moreno was signed for big money, he has predominantly been used as an attacking midfielder. Now the problem is there is no other senior striker to call upon in the event Bamford is injured or needs to be rested.
Enter Martin Braithwaite. A veteran of over 350 games in European football, he can be the solution to Leeds’ problems. He has previous experience of playing in England with Middlesbrough which should help the cause.
Leeds need to push ahead to convince the Barcelona man to join their ranks despite his insistence to stay back. They could use his situation at Barca where he is a fringe player, to their advantage. The club really needs to get Braithwaite because they could really use an experienced goalscorer.
