When Martin Braithwaite (Esbjerg, 1991), a Forbes-listed billionaire and footballer, arrived in Barcelona, he thought of nothing but success. He signed a four-year contract because he was convinced that it would be important. Time took away his reason. After an exciting start he was removed from the team when Xavi arrived. But from disappointments new opportunities are born, and the Dane decided to resign from Barça to be a prophet on the opposite sidewalk.
At Espanyol Braithwaite has been embraced as a hero. First, because anyone who renounces the Blaugrana faith is welcome among the parakeet parishioners. Also praised was the pulse he maintained in recent months with the Camp Nou club, which made his footballing qualities, very interesting for Espanyol, remain in the background when hiring him.
Braithwaite is a rare bird in football due to his status as a millionaire apart from his activity on the pitch. Together with his uncle, only six years older than him, he invested in 2017 in a real estate business in the United States. They now have more than $250 million worth of real estate in areas like New York, Philadelphia, Jersey City and San Antonio. As if that were not enough, he has also made it big in the world of fashion, with a very successful clothing business that he runs with his business partner Anne-Laure Louis. And he has a restaurant in Barcelona called Gave.
However, he is primarily focused on football. He has never been a prolific goalscorer but he has very good qualities both to finish and to break free into space. Esbjerg, Toulouse, Middlesbrough, Leganés and Barça have been his teams before landing in Cornellà. With De Tomás's question to be cleared up, his prominence will be enormous. His goal in Bilbao is a declaration of intent. He wants to be the unexpected leader arrived from the eternal rival. Although at Espanyol he will not be the richest, in that he will always surpass Chen Yansheng, with a fortune of more than 1,200 million.
