Antoine Griezmann (31) will not be returning to FC Barcelona. Staying with Atletico Madrid could also be the end of his meticulously measured stints.
Maybe he will play more than 30 minutes again soon. After Atletico Madrid had carefully regulated Antoine Griezmann’s playing time in order to avoid a purchase obligation clause, the Rojiblancos have now bought the attacker from FC Barcelona – for far less than originally planned.
According to the Madrilenians on Monday, the two rivals agreed on a permanent transfer of the Frenchman, who has so far been on loan for Atletico. According to media reports, the capitals are to transfer around 20 million euros to Barcelona – and thus considerably less than the 40 million that would have resulted from the mandatory purchase clause. This would have been activated if the Frenchman had played more than 45 minutes in more than half of Atletico’s games. This is one of the reasons why Griezmann was only ever substituted in the second half of the last few games.
The fact that cash-strapped Barça are now conceding far less is also because Griezmann did not want to return to the Catalans. “I’m happy to be where I want to be,” he said via Twitter. The 2018 World Cup winner had had his most successful time so far at Atletico.
Now Griezmann, whose loan was set to run until 2023, signed a contract with Atletico until 2026 – continuing his back and forth between Madrid and Barcelona. Since 2014 Griezmann played first for Atletico, then for Barça, which had spent 120 million euros – and now again for Atletico. But he has not yet won the Spanish championship title in this time.
