BarcelonaOn the night of August 31, the phones burned. Messages between Barcelona, Madrid and Paris were flying, wondering if the signing of Antoine Griezmann for Atlético de Madrid had closed. “A monument has to be made to the Paris lawyer, who finished the paperwork at an incredible speed. In five minutes the contract was sent up and down to be digitally signed,” the Griezmans explain. The sister, who brings him the business, breathed a sigh of relief when it was confirmed that an operation that 24 hours earlier seemed almost ruled out had been closed. Saúl left for Chelsea, Griezmann landed for Atlético and Luuk de Jong signed for Barça. In the Camp Nou offices, Mateu Alemany was celebrating, it was a key operation to put pressure on Barça’s economy. Griezmann received him with a laugh, but without euphoria. “It’s not easy to be aware of whether you have to change cities one day, with what it means for the family, the children … But I was happy because I had one thing clear: either I was still at Barça or I was returning to Atlético “, they say to their surroundings.
Five weeks later, Griezmann reunites with Barça. The start of the second stage of the Frenchman in the mattress team has not been the best. Part of the fans whistled at him as he played his first few minutes. Griezmann’s friends say it affected him, although he was expected to see the reactions on the networks. The player will always be chased by the way he managed to leave Atlético leaving Barça. On June 14, 2018, Griezmann released a video, dubbed as The decision, in which he explained that in view of the offer received from Barça, he decided to stay at Atlético. Initially he had already agreed to leave for the Barça club, but Atlético were sanctioned by UEFA for a year without being able to sign and Griezmann decided to stay one more year in Madrid as a sign of gratitude to the club that had bet on him, then in trouble. The decision, a video produced by the producer Kosmos, by Gerard Piqué, did not like the managers, the players or the Barça fans, who received it a year later coldly. At Atlético, the gesture was forgotten, because he ended up marching towards a rival. That Griezmann made it clear that he would only leave Barça to return to Atlético did not calm the more radical Wanda Metropolitano.
The support of the Cholo, key
Griezmann, however, is happy in Madrid, because he has a great ally: Diego Pablo Simeone. If at Barça he never connected with the coaches he has had, at Atlético he knows that the Argentine is unconditionally betting on him. “Without the pressure of the Cholo, surely the operation could not have been closed,” they told Atlético. Simeone spoke to all around Griezmann to make it clear that the return would be a success. In the first games, however, Griezmann played badly, like all Atlético, in fact, which comes after losing in the League to the field of Alava, which was leather. During the week, however, redemption. After a bad first half in the field of Milan, Atletico took the victory with a goal from Griezmann. And a second from another former Barça player, Luis Suárez.
With Simeone publicly defending him, Griezmann has begun the task of regaining the heart of Atlético’s fans. “I spent days without sleep, I wanted to come back both yes and no,” he explained himself, adding that it had been a mistake to “leave the club”. With the circles of friendships already made in Madrid, an ever better relationship with Suárez and under the umbrella of Simeone, Griezmann has the feeling of reversing a negative dynamic, that of Barça, in which he never managed to find a fit. Luck did not accompany him either, landing at the worst possible moment. In two years, he has lived as Bartomeu leaves, he is arrested, the Barçagate case, Messi’s farewell, elections and defeats like the 2-8.
The reunion with Barça comes after an important goal, that against Milan. Simeone, in fact, has been defending Griezmann when he has been whistled. “We should talk more about the fact that an extraordinary player has been signed who will bring us a lot, not the disease of the whistles. He has a challenge ahead, but his quality is well known,” he said after playing at home. against Porto. Now, the Argentine is one of those who takes care of you when things don’t go well and presses you when things are going well. After the goal at the San Siro, the coach recalled: “Griezmann should bring us a lot more, he will have to keep improving.” The Frenchman, however, already knows the way Simeone works, although he has returned to Atlético with much more competition in attack, with players like Joao Félix, Correa, Lemar or Carrasco, who do not guarantee him a start, or Luis Suárez . With the Uruguayan, he shares the motivation to try to score against Barça. The striker has admitted to being hurt by Barça for the way Koeman told him he didn’t want him, more than a year ago. And in a newspaper interview Sport has criticized the Barça club for how it handled Messi’s farewell. Griezmann has not publicly criticized Barça, where he claims to have left many friends, but his surroundings do not hide some disappointment with the way his future was managed in the offices, discovering that Barça said they accepted offers for him without having -I talked to the same player. Griezmann, then, will have a double motivation. One, reclaim the heart of Wanda Parish. And a second, to show Barça that he is still a player who makes a difference.
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