Antoine Griezmann clause: Atletico Madrid look to avoid paying Barcelona fee | OneFootball

Antoine Griezmann was brought on after the 60th minute during Atletico Madrid’s dramatic 2-1 victory over Porto in the Champions League on Wednesday night – before scoring the winner in the 90+11th minute.

Why is it significant that Griezmann came off the bench after the hour mark?

The Frenchman is currently on loan from Barcelona and there is a clause in the agreement that, if Griezmann plays at least 45 minutes in 14 of Atletico’s matches this campaign it would trigger a transfer. That agreement is that Atleti would have pay Barca £35million (€40m) to sign him permanently in 2023.

When asked about this clause earlier this week, Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone said: “You have known me for ten years now; I am a man of the club and I always will be.”

Meanwhile, the club president, Enrique Cerezo, added: “Antoine is a great player and I am very happy that he is with us. He is a great person and I have a magnificent relationship with him. I can only tell you that he is a great player and he is with us. I never get involved in line-up issues or these kinds of issues.”

But for the second time in the last three matches, Griezmann has come off the bench to score the winner – as he did against Valencia on August 29.

In fact, he’s been brought on in the 62nd, 62nd, 64th, 63th and 61st minutes in Atletico’s matches this season.

But the drama of Wednesday night at the Wanda Metropolitano won’t be beaten for a very long time.

It looked as though Simeone’s side would draw their Champions League Group B opener 0-0 against Porto. That was until Mario Hermoso scored what appeared to be the winner in the 90+1 minute.

However, Porto went up the other end and earned themselves a penalty following Hermoso’s handball. Mateus Uribe made no mistake to equalise in the 90+6 minute.

But there was still time for Griezmann to score an incredible winner in the 11th minute of stoppage time.

Wow.

After the match, Griezmann admitted that he would like to play more this season.

“It’s clear that I would like to play more, but I have to do the maximum in the minutes that I am given,” he said.

It’ll be interesting if Griezmann is rewarded with a start in Atleti’s next match against Celta Vigo on Saturday or whether he’ll be introduced around the hour mark once again.