Antoine Griezmann has been seeking forgiveness from the Atletico Madrid fans after permanently joining the club from Barcelona.
The forward returned to Atletico on loan from Catalonia last year, but a clause in his contract recently restricted him to a 30-minute guest appearance on the bench.
The Madrid club had to pay Barcelona a fee of £35m if the Frenchman played more than 45 minutes in 80% of his available matches over two years.
But this week, the two clubs finally agreed on a deal worth up to £21m for the 31-year-old’s full return to the Metropolitano stadium.
Griezmann outrages fans with a documentary about his decision to depart from the club
Griezmann celebrated the move by scoring Atletico’s winner in Saturday’s 1-0 win over his club against Athletic and took the opportunity to send a message to the fans after the game.
Upon inquiring about Diario AS Griezmann, he seemed to have stated, “Very proud to have been able to renew and be completely an Atletico.”
“In the end, I want to ask for forgiveness, I know that the people want to hear it from my mouth: I ask for forgiveness for the damage I might have done to the people, but the biggest forgiveness that I want to ask for is on the pitch, giving everything and with nights like tonight. We are on the path to follow, in spite of not being able to beat Brugge.”
The apology follows Griezmann’s behavior during his first move to Barcelona in 2019. The French star, after first rejecting Barca using the ‘La Decision’ documentary, publicly made the decision to leave Atlético, moving to Nou Camp a year later.
There was also a dispute between the two clubs over the transfer fee for the Euro 2016 Golden Boot winner, with Atletico complaining to La Liga as they believed Griezmann had agreed to join Barca before the clause was lowered.
He scored his 35th goal at Barcelona after joining the club for £107million but has struggled to maintain a regular starting lineup for the Catalan. The forward said –
he only wants to return to Atletico after leaving Noucamp, who is currently the club’s fourth-highest goalscorer. The reward received is a huge boost for Barcelona, despite losing £86m for the striker, suffering major financial struggles, and failing to break FFP limits in recent days for a summer signing and having to find a way to record his anger.
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