(Football news) Antoine Griezmann has officially rejoined Atletico Madrid on a permanent basis after Barcelona agreed to reduce the transfer fee from €40 million to €20m. Barca president Joan Laporta revealed that Atletico could also have to pay an additional €4m in add-ons, with Griezmann agreeing a contract till 2026 at the Metropolitano. Barca and Atletico had been in a long dispute over a clause in the contract that saw Griezmann return to Atletico Madrid on loan at the start of the 2021-22 campaign.
Griezmann recently turned 31 as he initially joined Atletico on a two-year loan deal with a buy option of €40m in the circumstances that he played over 45 minutes in 50% of the games for which he was available. At one point, Barcelona claimed that clause kicked in after the first season on loan, they even threatened to take legal action in the event that Atletico did not comply with the clauses. Griezmann has played over 45 minutes in 30 of the 37 games he was available in 2021-22. Atletico, meanwhile, this season started to use Griezmann sparingly, bringing him on right on the stroke of 60th minute in a string of games in an attempt to reduce the percentage of games he had met to trigger the clause.
The French international signed for Barca from Atletico in 2019 when the club paid his massive €120m release clause, one year after he turned down a move to Camp Nou as he announced in his documentary that he had called ‘The Decision’. Barcelona would later pay Atletico an additional €15m fee which was reportedly a penalty because they had first approached Griezmann when his release clause was still €200m, although both the clubs denied that was the case at the time.
Ateltico claimed that the €15m was a downpayment for Barca to have the first refusal on Saul Niguez, Jose Gimenez and three other players in the academy. Griezmann went on to score 35 goals in 102 appearances over two years for Barca. In his first season back at Atletico, where he had scored 133 times during his first spell between 2014 and 2019 and Griezmann in his second spell as he has netted eight times in 36 games.
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