GRIEZMANN: I WISH ATLETICO LUCK BUT MY HEART IS WITH BARCA NOW
French striker attempts to draw line under controversial exit from Madrid, ahead of friendly debut against Chelsea
Antoine Griezmann says his heart is now firmly with Barcelona as he looks to draw a line under his bitter exit from former club Atletico Madrid.
The French striker, 28, is in line to make his first start in Barc a colours today against Chel sea in Saitama, Japan, in a pre-season friendly after the Spanish champions met Grie zmann’s €120 million (Dh495m) buyout clause earlier this month.
The move angered Atletico, who believe that Barca and Griezmann agreed a deal in March to move to Camp Nou before the end of the season, but on the understanding that the transfer would not be rati fied until the World Cup winner’s buyout clause was reduced from €200m on July 1.
But he told media in Tokyo: “I am very happy about the outcome of my transfer. I am very eager to play as soon as possible. I wish Atletico players all the best of luck. I am focused on fitting in among the Barcelona players. My heart is here with them,” he said.
So incensed are Atletico that it is understood the Spanish club are threatening to take their case to football’s world governing body Fifa.
Griezmann, who won the World Cup with France in 2018, signed a five-year deal with Barca which includes a staggering €800m release clause.
The former Real Sociedad forward scored 133 goals in 256 appearances at Atletico, winning the 2018 Europa League and Uefa Super Cup.
The €120m price tag made Griezmann the sixth most expensive player in history after Ousmane Dembele, Joao Felix, Kylian Mbappe, Philippe Coutinho and Neymar.
Griezmann voiced his appreciation for his time at Atletico and his strong relationship with their manager, Diego Simeone.
But the Frenchman reiterated that he was now fully focused on adapting to his new team at Barcelona. “I did everything as well as possible with respect to Diego Simeone, my former teammates and Atletico Madrid to leave on good terms,” he said.
“It’s an issue for them. I am calm and all that matters is starting well with Barcelona, which is the most important thing. I heard about it [the complaint]. It’s a club where I gave my all. I’m very calm.
“The only thing that matters to me right now is understanding the coach’s tactics, getting on with my teammates and enjoying football.”
Barca are missing several key players due to their involvement in the Copa America. Ernesto Valverde has given extended leave to the likes of Philippe Coutinho, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.
Grie zmann re vealed that he h as yet t o speak to Messi but did receive a phone call from Suarez.
“Messi has not called me yet, but Suarez did. He congratulated me and welcomed me,” Griezmann said.
“The group has welcomed me and ... hopefully, I can help in the best way possible.”
After playing Chelsea today, Barc a will f ace Japan’s Vissel Kobe, who feature former Barca players Andres Iniesta, David Villa and Sergi Samper, in the Rakuten Cup.
“A team I have great memories of playing against,” Frank Lampard said. “Some good, some bad.” That felt an understatement. It may be truer to say some were great, some glorious, some heart-breaking, some harrowing, many unforgettable.
When Chelsea face Barcelona in Tokyo today, it may assume little meaning.
In their new manager’s playing days, however, it was very different. Theirs felt a series of epic duels, one of Europe’s era-defining rivalries, a bitter, dramatic clash of philosophies with seismic consequences.
It was a sign of how often they met that Lampard faced Barcelona more often than Crystal Palace, Leeds United or Wolverhampton Wanderers in his Chelsea career: 10 in total. It is a sign of his stature that he scored three times and they won more than they lost – three to two.
Lampard may have been beaten in his last meeting with Barcelona, a three-minute cameo at the Camp Nou as a Manchester City player, but he went undefeated in his last seven matches with Chelsea.
Yet that nevertheless included two times when Barcelona eliminated the Londoners from the Uefa Champions League; in 2006, courtesy of a first-leg win, and in 2009, controversially and on away goals.
Barcelona put Chelsea out twice in four seasons when the team Jose Mourinho built was at its peak; against all odds, an ageing Chelsea progressed at the expense of a more gifted Barcelona group in 2012’s credibility-defying semi-final.
Lampard ended up captaining them to a 2-2 draw in the Camp Nou and the eventual Champions League win, deep into his 34th year, but only because of John Terry’s senseless red card.
It was Lampard, minutes later, who released Ramires to score the goal that changed the context of the tie, long before Fernando Torres’ injury-time breakaway.
It was Lampard, too, who instigated the move that led to Didier Drogba’s first-leg winner. He did so by dispossessing Lionel Messi.
If few can say they have outscored the Argentine, Lampard did in their encounters: Messi never scored against his Chelsea.
One of Lampard’s greatest goals, an inch-perfect chip from an acute angle, came at the Catalans’ expense.
Messi has missed a penalty in this fixture, in the 2012 semi-final; Lampard has scored a 90th-minute leveller from the spot.
If Messi’s drought reflected on Chelsea’s uncompromising methods – Asier del Horno was dismissed for a wild hack on the future great in 2006 – it also showed that they were better equipped to halt Barcelona than virtually anyone else.
There was a case for calling them Europe’s best attacking and defensive team respectively. After 2008, Manchester United could not rival Chelsea for resistance to Barcelona, or for fractiousness.
Mourinho made his meetings with his former employers bad-tempered.
He alleged Frank Rijkaard entered referee Anders Frisk’s dressing room at half-time in 2005, before Drogba’s red card. The Swedish official retired after the furore while the chairman of Uefa’s referees committee then branded Mourinho an “enemy of football”.
Four years later, Drogba was banned for an expletive-laden rant at referee Tom Henning Ovrebo, after Chelsea were denied two penalties.
Yet Andres Iniesta’s injury-time equaliser feels a pivotal goal in footballing history, permitting Barcelona to conquer Europe in Pep Guardiola’s first season in charge. Their passing ethos became the dominant one, replacing Mourinho’s more cautious, attritional blueprint.
Yet it was only first Mourinho – with Inter in 2010 – and then Chelsea, led by Lampard, who prevented Guardiola’s Barcelona from winning the Champions League. And if 2019 brought two astonishing Champions League semi-finals, they also served as a reminder of the improbable antics of 2012. Such memories do not fade, and not just for Lampard.