Antoine Griezmann is going nowhere… for now.
Earlier this summer, fuelled by some suggestive comments from the 26-year-old, speculation reached fever pitch about Griezmann joining international teammate Paul Pogba at Manchester United.
Last month, the Atletico Madrid star told French TV his chances of moving to United were ‘6/10’ and that was before they secured Champions League football for next season.
Just about everyone got ahead of themselves and United were definitely keen to match the player’s release clause but he has, instead, opted to sign up until June 2022 with the Spanish outfit.
It won't be happening this year, but hope remains https://t.co/qhsc4HJxlh
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) June 13, 2017
Atleti president José Luis Pérez Caminero believes retaining the French forward is great news because ‘he is one of the best players in the world’.
“Antoine is a different player,” he added, “able to change a match with spectacular qualities. He is a very complete player.”
🔴⚪️🔴 @AntoGriezmann amplía su contrato hasta 2022 🖊⚽️
¡Enhorabuena! 👏🙌
➡️ https://t.co/2HLjbmsG8z#Griezmann2022 #AúpaAtleti pic.twitter.com/heuqHwUUFO— Atlético de Madrid (@Atleti) June 13, 2017
Griezmann’s spoke with the club’s official website soon after the inked on his new deal dried. His first thoughts were to clear up any confusion about some of his open-ended comments from earlier this summer.
He said [translated from Spanish]:
‘The first thing I want to do is apologise to people who have misunderstood my statements.
‘Maybe I could express myself wrong or some would like to make headlines where there were none, but since I have arrived I give everything for my club, my colleagues and my coaching staff and I am very happy to re-live a season more with all of you.’
Interestingly he did just say ‘a season more with all of you’ but perhaps, as he says, we are reading too much into his words.
