Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo has revealed his ‘disappointment’ in Antoine Griezmann after the France international told the club he would be leaving this summer.
Griezmann, 28, advised Atleti in a face-to-face meeting on Tuesday that he wanted to leave and would be depositing his release clause of €120m (£105m) in order to terminate his contract.
As pointed out by La Liga president Javier Tebas on the radio that same evening, Griezmann would not be depositing such a sum unless he knew a club was willing to reimburse him and the expectation is that the World Cup winner will take the move he infamously dropped out of at the last minute a year ago and join FC Barcelona.
Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich have both also approached Griezmann’s sister, who is acting as his agent, according to local reports in each country.
But Barca are the overwhelming favourites to sign the former Real Sociedad winger.
At Atletico, it was president Cerezo who was one of the voices who internally put on the most pressure to keep Griezmann last summer amid Barcelona’s interest, and it is he who has been most vocally critical of their star player.
“More than annoyed I am disappointed,” he told Fox Sports.
“Antoine had a brilliant future at Atletico Madrid, with big titles and great championships.
“The problem is that everybody thinks differently and Antoine, at this moment, has thought it best to leave and go somewhere else… we wish him all the luck in the world.”
