ANTOINE GRIEZMANN won Atletico Madrid’s Player of the Month despite starting just ONE MATCH, with the transfer spat with Barcelona still ongoing.
The Frenchman, 31, rejoined Atletico from Barca on a two-year loan deal following an unsuccessful two years at the Nou Camp.
Despite Barca paying over £100million for Griezmann in 2019, they inserted a cut-price fee of £35m in his Atletico loan.
However, that will only be triggered if the World Cup winner plays a certain amount of games.
And to avoid triggering the buy option, Atletico have only played Griezmann for less than 30 minutes per match – which is under the threshold to be counted as a game in the terms.
A new deal could be negotiated for around £22m to end the stalemate and give Griezmann the game time he deserves ahead of France’s world title defence in Qatar later this year.
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Barca have threatened legal action against Atletico regarding their seeming exploitation of this loophole, and unless a deal is hashed out before January to sort it Griezmann may be recalled.
Griezmann won Atletico’s Player of the Month for September, despite starting just ONE MATCH, paying testament to his bench cameos.
He got a goal and an assist across all competitions in the month, including a last-gasp Champions League winner over Porto.
Whether Atletico and Barca come to an agreement is yet to be seen.
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But other clubs are starting to sniff around Griezmann.
Premier League giants Manchester United, as well as Serie A title-chasing Juventus are said to be keen.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
