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Barca in Griezmann deal, claim reports
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BARCELONA President Josep Maria Bartomeu has met with the family of Atletico Madrid’s star forward Antoine Griezmann ahead of a possible summer move, sports daily Mundo Deportivo reported yesterday.
The French international, who has been Atletico’s top scorer for the past three seasons, has been heavily linked with a move to Manchester United in the past.
However, Barca appears willing to meet his 100-million euro (US$118 million) buyout clause as it seeks to again unite Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez with a prolific attacker following the departure of Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain in August for a world-record 222 million euros.
“Barca settled on Griezmann as an objective for 2018 and they spoke with his entourage to see if he was willing to wear the blue and red shirt,” reported Barcelona-based Mundo Deportivo.
“After receiving a ‘yes’ in response, an agreement was reached with the French goalscorer involving Pep Segura, Barca’s general manager, and Robert Fernandez, the director of football.
“President Josep Maria Bartomeu has now entered to finalize the operation,” the newspaper reported adding that “Bartomeu met recently with Griezmann’s family to eat in Barcelona”.
Griezmann, 26, agreed to sign a new contract with Atletico in June after the club had an appeal against a transfer ban rejected.
The top scorer at Euro 2016, Griezmann said it would have been “dirty” to walk out on the club when it couldn’t replace him until January.
However, Atletico coach Diego Simeone accepted this week that Griezmann’s departure is inevitable. Many of Atletico’s other outstanding players, including strikers Fernando Torres, Sergio Aguero, Radamel Falcao and Diego Costa, have also left in recent years for pastures new.
“Of course Griezmann will be able to leave at some point, as Diego Costa, Diego Ribas and Arda Turan have gone,” Simeone told French sports daily L’Equipe.
The club has also already committed to nearly 100 million euros in transfers for January with Costa returning from Chelsea and Spanish international Vitolo joining from Sevilla.
On Saturday, Torres came off the bench to fire Atletico to a 1-0 win at home to Alaves which took Simeone’s side up to second in La Liga above Valencia, which lost 1-2 at Eibar.
Atletico is second in the standings on 36 points, 3 behind Barca, which was hosting Deportivo La Coruna yesterday, while Valencia is third on 34. Real Madrid, fourth on 31, missed the weekend’s domestic action due to playing in the Club World Cup final, where it beat Gremio 1-0 in Abu Dhabi.
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