I was stunned, to be honest, in the same way that I was surprised when I was given a chance in the first team at Ajax as a youngster and when Arsenal came calling a few years later
The Belgium international defender made 150 appearances for Arsenal over six seasons but started just seven games in his last one after struggling with injuries, making a further seven outings off the substitutes' bench.
Despite his lack of action, that didn’t dissuade the Catalan giants from swooping for the experienced stopper in the summer of 2014; a decision that even surprised the 29-year-old.
“I was stunned, to be honest,” he says, speaking exclusively in the December 2015 issue of FourFourTwo magazine, “in the same way that I was surprised when I was given a chance in the first team at Ajax as a youngster and when Arsenal came calling a few years later.
“It’s every footballer’s dream to play for such big clubs, so of course I was excited. My situation at Arsenal helped to speed up the negotiations. I only had one year left on my contract, so it was their last chance to receive a transfer fee. And since I hadn’t played much, they weren’t really reluctant to let me go.”
I don’t consider myself to have won trophies with Barcelona because I didn’t play. So let’s hope that we can repeat that success this year while I’m part of it
Vermaelen’s injury nightmare didn’t end there, though, with a serious thigh problem limiting the centre-back to just 63 minutes of game time - on the final day of the league season - in 2014/15.
But the defender reveals how he was blown away by the reaction of the club and his team-mates, saying: “Everybody at the club has been great.
"When the players started warming up in shirts displaying a message to support me, after my surgery, I was flabbergasted. I knew nothing."
Now fit and, hopefully, over his fitness issues, Vermaelen has already made four outings for Barcelona in 2015/16, scoring once, and finally made his Champions League bow for the club against BATE Borisov on Wednesday having played no part in last term’s victorious run to Berlin that sealed the Treble.
“I don’t consider myself to have won trophies because I didn’t play,” he says. “Let’s hope that we can repeat that success this year while I’m part of it.”
Read the full interview with Thomas Vermaelen in the December 2015 issue of FourFourTwo magazine, available in print, on iPad and iPhone now, which features an exclusive interview with Robert Lewandowski and delves into the stories behind other iconic No.9s in football history. We also sit down One-on-One with Kevin Davies, chat to Watford strike pair Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo about their peculiar paths to the Premier League, find out why RB Leipzig are the ‘world’s most hated club’ and hear from overseas journalists on what it's like to cover English football focusing only on one player. Subscribe now!
