Antoine Griezmann had to agree to slash his wages nearly in half in order to facilitate his move from Barcelona to Atletico Madrid.
After being linked with a move back to Los Rojiblancos earlier in the summer transfer window, Griezmann finally got his switch late on deadline day, returning to Atletico on a season-long loan with an obligation to buy for around £34m.
It was a move which almost did not materialize because of a number of financial issues, the main among which was Atleti’s refusal to pay Griezmann’s wages, which hovered at over the £300,000-a-week mark.
To get the move over the line, Goal state that Griezmann finally agreed to cut his wages by around 40% to the comfort level which Atletico could cope with. Barcelona also did not ask for a loan fee, meaning there were no hidden costs for Atletico to bring their former superstar back to the Wanda Metropolitano.
As part of the deal, Atletico have agreed to an obligation to sign Griezmann permanently, with some flexibility to that. It’s an initial one-year loan, but Atleti can extend that by a further year if they pay Barcelona a set fee next summer.
Now away from the spotlight at Camp Nou, Griezmann can focus solely on his football and his search for a La Liga title which has somehow evaded him thus far in his career.
Having first joined Atletico back in 2014, the summer after they had won the La Liga title, he failed to lead Los Rojiblancos back to glory before leaving to join Barcelona in 2019… right after they had just won the title as well.
With just one Copa del Rey trophy to his name at Barcelona, Griezmann moved to the reigning La Liga champions for the third time in his career to end what some in the Spanish press have described as ‘the Griezmann curse’.