Griezmann steals La Liga spotlight
WITH the Europa League final less than a week away, Antoine Griezmann is in the middle of a tug-of-war between Atletico Madrid and Barcelona.
Spanish media is rife with reports that Griezmann will soon be on his way to Camp Nou to join Lionel Messi.
Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu told Catalan radio RAC1 this week that his club met with Griezmann’s agent in October amid speculation that the France forward has long been ready to move. That acknowledgement came after Barcelona spokesman Guillermo Amor said in December that “there could have been an approach” made by the club.
Barcelona striker Luis Suarez also appeared to speak of Griezmann’s arrival as a done deal when in a recent interview he said that “he isn’t coming here to take anybody’s spot, but rather with the ambition to do important things on the best team in the world.”
Atletico has cried foul. It says Barcelona is causing discord among its ranks before it plays its most important match of the season: the Europa League final against Marseille next Wednesday.
“We are fed up with Barcelona’s attitude,” Atletico club executive Miguel Gil Marin said on Tuesday. “For the president, a player and a club executive of the same club to speak in the way they have about the future of a player who has a contract (with another club) and do so just a few days before a European final seems to me to represent a complete lack of respect for Atletico Madrid.”
Atletico coach Diego Simeone, however, declined to comment directly about the situation on Wednesday, only saying that Griezmann “is training well as always.”
The 27-year-old Frenchman is under contract with Atletico until 2022. But his buyout clause of 100 million euros (US$118.5 million), which appeared intimidating enough before last year’s 222-million euro blowout by Paris SaintGermain to pry Neymar from Barcelona, now looks like a relative bargain given his highly-coveted attacking talent.
Griezmann has said that he wanted his sister, who acts as his agent, to clear up his future before France starts the World Cup in mid-June. “I want to go to Russia with a clear head,” he told L’Equipe in March.
The dispute over his future will likely put even more pressure on Griezmann as he hopes to break his run of bad fortune in finals.
Griezmann missed a penalty in the UEFA Champions League final loss to Real Madrid in 2016. And just 6 weeks later his France team lost in the final of the European Championship at home against Portugal.