How Griezmann is causing a transfer roadblock at Barcelona

Robin Bairner

• 24 Jul 2021 09:05 BST
• 3 min read

Antoine Griezmann is beginning to cause a major headache for Barcelona due to his thinking over his future.

The Camp Nou side had hoped by now to be able to tie down a new contract for Lionel Messi, yet their inability to reduce their salary size means that the Argentine remains a free agent.

Griezmann is one of the players that Barcelona are most eager to offload. Indeed, the club have admitted that he can depart, although they were careful to hedge their bets with their comments on the former Real Sociedad man.

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Nevertheless, he is the third-highest earning player in world football currently behind only Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo and Paris Saint-Germain ace Neymar.

With Griezmann having failed to enjoy the influence with Barca that he did with Atletico Madrid, where he spent 2014-2019, he is a player who has become seen as expendable.

Griezmann's Atleti demand

Sport reports, meanwhile, Griezmann does not want to leave Barcelona for any other club aside from La Liga champions Atleti.

Diego Simeone’s side are interested and have been in negotiations with Barca, though they have not been able to muster a deal that is seen as attractive enough for the Catalans to accept. Indeed, Sport says that Barcelona see a deal with the league champions as “absolutely impossible”.

There is interest from the Premier League and Italy, where Juventus are linked with the World Cup winner, but a move to either destination is apparently not on the player’s agenda.

This is a major problem for Barcelona, who will, therefore, struggle to find a way of washing their hands of his salary.

In turn, this is hampering their transfer plans, most notably the renewal of Messi, and Atleti hope it means that they will be drawn into a sale for a favourable price.

In the meantime, Barcelona are looking at alternatives to selling Griezmann, including key players reducing their wages and three or four sales in the coming weeks.