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Barcelona director of football Mateu Alemany has confirmed a permanent transfer for French forward Antoine Griezmann to move to Atletico Madrid has been completed.
“Deal has been completed this week, it’s done for €20/25m depending on bonuses,” he said as reported by Fabrizio Romano. “It’s a massive, extraordinary deal for us because of Griezmann’s salary — and same for Coutinho”.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta also admitted it’s a good deal for the club, as reported by ESPN’s Samuel Marsden.
“Griezmann is a good deal. €20m fixed and €4m in add ons, plus the difference if Atletico sell him for up to €40m,” he said. “If he came back, we had to pay his €36m salary and it would have been a drama.”
Griezmann returned to the Rojiblancos in the summer of 2021 on a two-year loan, but the deal did include a purchase option reportedly set at around €40m, provided the attacker played a certain amount of games.
Atletico and Barca have been in dispute over the clause, leading to Diego Simeone’s side to regularly use Griezmann only as a substitute after the 60-minute mark in games this season.
Barca did not want to take Griezmann back, as his salary would have taken up a large chunk of their LaLiga spending limit. The Frenchman cost Barca €100m when he signed from Atletico in 2019.
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Griezmann Talks Substitute Role
Griezmann has opened up on his bit-part role at Atletico this season and made it clear that there was not much he could do about his current situation, as reported by Football Espana.
“It is what it is, it’s out of my hands. Grateful to God for being here. My family is happy, I of course want more, but I am going to give everything I have in the minutes I have,“ he said. “I feel like a man of the club, I am happy here and I only want to play here and give everything for the club, for Cholo and for the fans.”
The Frenchman has still made an impact this season. He won Atletico’s player of the month award for September despite spending a large part of his time on the bench.
Antoine Griezmann has been named Atlético’s Player of the Month for September. His appearances this month:
27 minutes vs. Real Sociedad
29 minutes vs. Porto
27 minutes vs. Celta Vigo
27 minutes vs. Leverkusen
90 minutes vs. Real Madrid
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Griezmann has now started Atletico’s last two fixtures which was a hint that the two clubs had reached an agreement over his future.
Griezmann Defends Time At Barcelona
Griezmann has also spoken about his time at Barcelona and defended his performances. The Frenchman struggled to make much of an impact and never really found a position where he could thrive.
The World Cup winner told Telefoot that is proud of his Barcelona career and learned a lot from his time at the Camp Nou, as reported by Goal.
‘I was very happy to go. I had incredible team-mates. I learned a lot from the coaches, although sometimes I didn’t play and it was difficult. It wasn’t a disaster either, because I’ve always scored almost 20 goals every season. For me, it is a great pride to have played at Barcelona.”
The forward made 102 appearances in all competitions for the Catalan giants, scoring 35 goals and contributing 16 assists. He was also part of the team that won the Copa del Rey in 2021.
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