Barcelona and Atletico Madrid planning a swap deal involving strikers | OneFootball

On Thursday, Barcelona sporting director Mateu Alemany was spotted having dinner with Atletico Madrid CEO Miguel Angel Gil Marin, which has given way to a lot of transfer speculation.

Some outlets in Spain reported that Atletico Madrid intend to cut short Antoine Griezmann’s loan spell after just one year and that possibility was discussed during the meeting.

However, MARCA have come out with a whole different take on the meeting between the two club officials, claiming that the possibility of engineering a swap deal involving Alvaro Morata and Griezmann may have been discussed.

Morata has been on the radars of Barcelona since the January transfer window, with manager Xavi Hernandez keen on signing the Spanish international. However, the striker being away on loan at Juventus made matters difficult during the mid-season trading period.

But, with Juventus still undecided on signing Morata permanently for €35 million, there is a chance that he will be back at Atletico Madrid at the end of the season at which point Barça wish to swoop in and sign him.

At the same time, Atletico Madrid are looking at ways to avoid a full payment for the transfer of Griezmann, whom they will have to sign permanently in 2023.

So, it is claimed that Alemany and Gil Marin met and discussed plans that would enable Barcelona and Atletico Madrid to swap the two forwards in the upcoming summer transfer window.

Neither Morata nor Griezmann has had the best of seasons in 2021/22. The former has produced a return of just 11 goals in 47 games at Juventus while the latter has netted just eight times in 37 games at Atletico Madrid.

Nevertheless, it seems like Barça remain very intent on the former Real Madrid striker, while Atletico would be happy to keep Griezmann at the Wanda Metropolitano if there was a way to facilitate a swap deal without them having to pay the full amount.

It remains to be seen if the discussions yielded any fruitful result, with the summer transfer window not far away.