BarcelonaWhen asked at the Camp Nou about Antoine Griezmann, it takes very little for managers and executives to admit that it was a “ruinous” operation. The footballer was not only paid in gold. He also had to pay an additional fine, was on a stratospheric wage and ended up returning to his home club in an almost free-for-all deal for Atlético de Madrid. For desserts, he left losses to the Blaugrana treasury and, according to the rule of fair play, it was almost impossible to sign anyone in the winter. Today the mattress striker, that footballer who had been identified as Leo Messi’s heir, will be the rival and the main threat in the duel at Cívitas Metropolitano (9 p.m., DAZN LaLiga), where Barça aspires to be the sole leader of the League.
Numbers aside, the story of Griezmann and Barça is that of that footballer who promised great afternoons of glory and who ended up leaving through the back door, on the last day of the 2021 summer market. Today attacker, silent leader of the French national team that was runner-up in the world, is living a second youth at Atlético de Madrid. He has been the protagonist of 205 goals (147 scored by him, in addition to 58 assists) in the 316 games he has played under Diego Simeone.
Records that, on average, he could not equal in the two seasons he played at Barça, where he scored 34 goals and provided 16 assists in the two years he played at Camp Nou, during which he played 102 minutes. “Maybe he had poorer records, but not insufficient. He is a valid player for Barça, but he had to leave for financial reasons”, they admit from the noble offices, where they explain that they tried to renegotiate his contract but that the player closed in on side. On the other hand, they had it much easier at the Metropolitano. “It makes me so much the efforts I have to make. The only thing I wanted was to stay at Atlético de Madrid”, he said after the sale of Griezmann to the mattress makers was completed, a couple of months ago, in which agreed to charge much less.
Bartomeu’s rush after elimination in Liverpool
It was 120 million paid in cash, in 2019, just a few months after Barça fell resoundingly to Liverpool in the semi-finals of a Champions League that seemed to be on track. Griezmann had refused to play at Camp Nou the previous year, when it cost 100 million and everything was already arranged. He did it in the famous documentary The decision , produced by Barcelona’s Gerard Piqué, where at the end he said he was staying in Madrid – even some managers of Josep Maria Bartomeu, then president, found out about it on television. An additional 15 million were added to the 120 million to prevent Atlético de Madrid from suing Barça for secretly negotiating with the footballer. Five years of contract at the front and an ascending salary that, above all, made a leap in quality in 2021, just when Messi ended his association with the Barcelona team.
“But we couldn’t afford it, not even having given up on Messi”, admits one of Joan Laporta’s confidants, president who won the elections just in 2021. In a summer in which the main priority was to square the numbers, suffocated by the inheritance received and the problems of the League to register footballers, Barça agreed to transfer Griezmann to Atlético de Madrid for two seasons and with a conditional purchase option. A priori, it had to be an exchange with João Félix, although in the end Atlético de Madrid backed down and did not let the young Portuguese promise escape. On the other hand, Barça, who needed to save Griezmann’s salary “as it were”, did invoice him to Madrid. It wouldn’t be the only move by Gil Marín, the mattress owner: according to the contract, Atlético de Madrid agreed to pay 40 million transfer fees if the attacker played more than thirty minutes in half of the matches in which he was available. What did Simeone’s side do in the opening games of the 2022-23 season? Well, let Griezmann play from the 60th minute, to skip the clause. Barça found themselves between a rock and a hard place and renegotiated the transfer assuming that the operation would end up generating losses. “The worst scenario was for him to come back, because we cannot assume his salary for next season,” they point out from the club.
The transfer of Griezmann left losses and strained Barça’s ‘fair play’
“The contract is established with a whole series of conditions. If someone plays with the contract and the legality, everything is stopped. Between 0 and 40 there is a route. And since we had no interest in him returning, it was clear that we had to negotiate, even if it was reluctantly”, argued Eduard Romeu, the economic vice-president, just after sealing the sale of Griezmann for 20 million plus 4 variables. The money was already in the coffers and Barça made sure that the player did not return to Barcelona. But the operation left losses, since more than 40 million euros remained to be repaid and this further limits Barça’s options for signing. “Was there bad faith on the part of Atlético de Madrid? It seems pretty clear that there was. But the risk was very high. Between not charging anything and eating it with potatoes or ending up charging something, we opted for the second option”, they add from the offices.
A signing that started badly, that happened without pain or glory and that ended even worse. “When you negotiate, it is important to do so in a situation of superiority. Or, at least, in equality. In the case of Griezmann, it is clear that we were inferior. And this has ended up being transferred to the result of the operation” , summarizes one of the sources consulted, close to President Joan Laporta.
