Watch Thomas Vermaelen celebrate a Barca title you had just as much to do with as he did
May 17, 2015
Former Arsenal captain Thomas Vermaelen moved to Barcelona in a £15 million deal last summer, but injuries have prevented him from playing a single minute for his new club this season. Despite this, when Barca clinched their 23 La Liga title after beating Atletico Madrid 1–0, Vermaelen was out on the pitch celebrating with his theoretical teammates, wearing his Barca away shirt maybe for the first time ever (coincidentally he wears №23).
https://www.youtube.com/embed/R56_a8Kb5Dk
Watch the video above as Vermaelen is overcome with the joy of the moment before he appears to keep remembering that he had as much to do with Barcelona’s accomplishment as a retired bus driver in New Jersey who believes that lizard people will kidnap him if he leaves the house.
When Vermaelen hugs Jordi Alba around the 1:05 mark, you can almost hear him say, “Yeah! I watched you win a trophy, bro! I really watched the hell out of that!” And then Alba wondered how a fan was able to get on the pitch so fast.
As painful as it might be for Arsenal to see yet another one of their former captains celebrate a league title soon after leaving, they might get an extra £3 million if Barca beat Juventus in the Champions League final thanks to a clause in Vermaelen’s transfer. And collecting a total of £18 million for a guy who, nine months on, has only helped the buying club celebrate a title is a pretty tidy piece of business.