Antoine Griezmann fails to join up with Atletico Madrid as he awaits Barcelona signing.
The saga between Antoine Griezmann, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid has taken another turn as the player did not meet up with Atletico for training. This comes after the statement issued by the Madrid-based side in which they slam both Barcelona and Griezmann for the manner in which they approached his potential signing.
In their statement they also made it apparent that they expected Griezmann to show up and join the club for the start of their pre-season training. The date has come and gone and the still-Atletico Madrid player did not show up.
According to Sport, it was Griezmann’s lawyer who notified the club that his client would not be taking part in training with the club. The rationale behind that was that he still had some vacation time left over.
“There’s also the matter of the AFE regulations which state: ‘Footballers have the right to 30 holiday days over the course of a year unless they’ve spent less than a year at their club. 21 of those must be taken consecutively and the rest when both sides agree. In this case, he’ll enjoy 30 consecutive days on holiday,'” writes Toni Frieros of Diario Sport.
Therefore, the earliest Antoine Griezmann could have returned to the club was on July 11th. Another reason given for his absence is of “emotional stress” he would have suffered had he been around his soon-to-be former teammates. It’s not an uncommon excuse as Philippe Coutinho used similar reasoning to force a move to Barcelona.
ESPN report that the Frenchman could be fined for not meeting up with the team.
ESPN’s Dermot Corrigan writes, “Logically a disciplinary process will be opened as Griezmann did not present himself for an official call-up with the club where he is under contract.”
That is according to a source from Atletico Madrid.
The sooner his transfer is dealt with by the two clubs, the better for everyone involved. The fact of the matter is this is posturing by Atletico Madrid. They’ve splashed out a significant amount of cash for Joao Felix, Felipe Monteiro, and Marcos Llorente and one assumes its from the money they believe they will get when they ultimately sell Griezmann.
It is completely understandable why they would be upset at the way Barcelona have handled things and if their assumption that both he and Barcelona reached an agreement as far back as February and that now Barcelona want to defer that €120 million release clause to a later date.
Had Barcelona simply paid that amount when his release clause decreased, they might not be in this situation.
All signs indicate that Antoine Griezmann will be a Barcelona player once the season gets underway. However, the drama surrounding all sides involved looks like it’ll get worse before it gets better.