Antoine Griezmann finally joined Barcelona after they agreed to pay his release clause of £108m.
The saga which ran for almost a year after starting shortly after the World Cup.
Last summer, the Blaugrana were looking to buy him after triggering his release clause of £88 million.
But after a while, Griezmann released a documentary titled “La Decision”, in which he stated that he will staying at the club.
He then signed a contract extension increasing his release clause to £180m. The fee which of course dropped to £108m on July 1st of this year.
This allowed Barca to sign him on Friday, but Barcelona could have bought him up for far less last summer. It doesn’t matter now as they have got their man now.
On Saturday, Antoine Griezmann was unveiled and spoke about the team and it’s players.
“I’m very happy and looking forward to working with the squad and meeting my new team-mates,”
he said as per Barcelona’s official website.
“It’s a new challenge, with new targets. I hope I can do as well as I have been doing for my club and country. La Liga, La Copa, the Champions League… I hope to win them here.”
After outlining his goals, the French star also added that he looked forward to playing with Messi.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what [Messi’s] like on a day-to-day basis, in training. Playing next to him will be an incredible joy.”
Funnily enough, it seems Grizzy has backtracked from his comment he made a while ago. Where he said that playing under Messi and not being the main man was one of the reasons for not join Barcelona.
“Was it hard to refuse Barca? It was very difficult,”
he told FourFourTwo back in November 2018.
“You have Barca who wants you, who calls you, who sends messages. But then there is the club where you are, where you are an important player and where they build a project around you.”
“Subconsciously, being Messi’s lieutenant may have played a part.”
Well anyway it looks like he has had a year to think about it and has now changed his mind.
