There was no time left, and anyway: what would be the point? It was perfect this way, everyone knew. This was more than just a goal later than any they had ever seen. More than the goal that gave them a first home win in this competition for 680 days -- yes, really. More than the man who scored it, in his manager's words, being "one of the most important players in Atletico's history" (now there's a debate). More than it being the man who had come on as a sub. It was scored by the man who always comes on as a sub. That might sound a bit silly, which is partly because it is. So wait, let's get this straight: The man who is one of the most important players in Atletico's history. The man the manager loves. The man who is a World Cup winner, and probably their best player, their best-paid player.
You might have heard Griezmann say, "I just want to play here and give everything for the club, for Cholo and for the fans. " That "for Cholo" is vital. This is a tale of two men, but there are more men in the team, a complex balancing act for a coach. They too have their aspirations, they too have a World Cup on the horizon, they too have to accommodate a player coming on pretty early as subs go and pretty well always, perhaps for them. They could easily see him as a threat, and that requires careful handling.
It is a statement of strength and determination, a willingness to follow through to the letter of the law. It was about saying: we're not going to back down, you know. We can do it this way if we must. Now, there's a stalemate. Two clubs stuck; two men, Griezmann and Simeone, stuck in the middle. "For the moment we think this is the best path to follow, " Simeone said.
And these are people, remember. Around the 60th minute, everyone's waiting for it now. Griezi time. Heeeeere's Antoine. The reason, as you probably already know, is simple: he doesn't play more because he can't play more. Because playing more costs money that Atletico don't have. "It's not in my hands, " Griezmann said. Which hasn't always been entirely true, but is about right. So here's why. Griezmann joined Atletico Madrid from Barcelona last summer, on a two-year loan deal. At the end of it, Atletico are obliged to sign him permanently for €40m if, that is, he plays more than 50% of the games over the two years (although some doubt has now crept in about whether interpretation allows for a grey area as to whether it's 50% in the two years together, or in each of the two years). Playing a game is set at half a match, i. e. 45 minutes. So if he plays a half or more in half of the games or more over two seasons, then Atletico will have to pay Barcelona €40m.
Last season, Griezmann started six games in the Champions League and came on as a sub in three. He started 24 games in LaLiga and came on as a sub in five. But it's not the simple percentage of the games that he plays that counts; it is the percentages of the games he plays when available that does. He missed only one in the Champions League, but he was suspended, which doesn't count. In LaLiga he missed eight through injury, which don't count.
He sat on the bench only once; he played less than 45 minutes only twice (against Barcelona, 18 minutes, and Celta, 26 minutes). All of which means that the quota of games is pretty close to used up already. (And if he was to get injured and miss the rest of the season, it would effectively already be used up). If Atletico play him and cross that threshold, they will have to pay Barcelona €40m, but Atletico cannot afford to pay Barcelona. Meanwhile, Barcelona cannot afford for Atletico not to. It's not just the €40m in transfer fee that they would lose out on; it is that they would get Griezmann back and find themselves tied, once again, to a salary of around €20m net (almost €40m gross) a year for two more years for a player they do not want. They would have to find another solution: essentially, another destination for him.
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They would have to go through all that again. Because Atletico can't afford to have the obligatory purchase clause triggered, they have decided not to play him. Except that they want to play him, and as much as they possibly can. Which is why they are putting him on after an hour, meaning that those games are not included in his total, that those games do not count as games. There is a neat phrase in Spanish that sums this up: hecha la ley, hecha la trampa. Roughly it means: no sooner is the law in place than the loophole is, too. Make the law, make the cheat.
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Another game would be added to the total, that clause getting closer. As the game went into the 98th, 99th and 100th minutes, and Griezmann went into his 38th, 39th and 40th, there were some at Atletico concerned that the match wasn't over yet for precisely that reason. When he finally scored, everything was on edge: not only the match, but him, too. On one interpretation, he was four minutes off 45, raising the intriguing question: had it been delayed further for any reason, would they have taken him off again? Time is literally money. That he has come on in minutes 62, 62, 64, 63 and 61, always the same moment, is because Atletico want him to play as much as possible of course but also because they are not just doing this but making a point of doing it.
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The goal he scored against third-tier Rayo Majadahonda in the Copa del Rey on Jan. 6 turned out to be his last. He got three league goals, eight in total in all competitions. Above all, though, the cost was too great. The club tried to move him. The coach, though, had different ideas. Simeone's big objective in the transfer window was: keep Griezmann.
That it has gone on this long, this publicly, and that there is no obvious solution in sight even as it feels inevitable that they will have to find one for everyone's sake, is already a surprise to some. It has come as a source of amusement to many, let's be honest. It is not comfortable for anyone, but then they knew this was a possibility, and they took it on anyway. The starting point for this is that Atletico didn't want Griezmann either, not this summer. His first season back hadn't been overwhelmingly successful.
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When he got there, he pushed his way through the crowd, grabbed Griezmann by the face, laid their heads together and, looking him in the eyes, screamed something, holding him hard. "I love him; he knows the affection I have for him, " Simeone would say later when he had calmed down a little. And when he had hugged him some more. If Griezmann didn't know before -- which is pretty implausible given everything that had happened, all the conversations they had had, the pacts they had forged -- he did now. The ball lay in the back of the net. The clock had shown 100.
The question was: how? He persuaded the club, but the only way was to accept a scenario in which the Frenchman didn't "play, " contractually speaking, in which the manager adopted a plan to minimise financial risk and apply pressure on Barcelona. You might have heard Simeone say recently: "I am a club man.
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- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, MLS, more (U. S. )"This will be the last chance, " the commentator said, and it was. A corner was nodded on by Axel Witsel, and Griezmann was there to score at the far post. He turned and dashed across the south end of the Metropolitano, looking up at all the limbs in the stand, pulling at the badge on his shirt. As a crowd of players grabbed him and everyone went wild, Simeone sprinted from the bench to reach them, skidding round the corner.
It is illogical, but relentlessly logical. It's literally all written there, in black and white -- even if some see shades of grey. Against Getafe, Griezmann came on in the 62nd minute. Against Villarreal, it was also 62. Against Valencia, 64. Against Real Sociedad, 63. And now, against Porto, it was 61. You might have spotted a pattern there. Everyone has. Not least because they want you to: this is a message as well as a substitution. A blunt, unsubtle message designed to be inescapable. It has become a kind of running joke, a meme, although it's not always that funny for those involved.
Is always a sub. Every. Single. Game. Yeah, that's about it. Atletico Madrid have played five games this season, and Griezmann has not started any of them. Which makes no sense. Only, it makes total sense, like some parable of modern football, a portrait of the problems two clubs face, a morality tale featuring the mess they have made of things. And how two men (and the rest) try to make the best of it.
"That meant he had to persuade Griezmann, too. Anyone else and it would have been difficult, impossible maybe. It is a World Cup year, the tournament just months away in fact: getting a player to accept drastically reduced playing time is a hell of an ask. But this was Simeone, in whom he trusts, who helped make him the player he is and then brought him back, and who still could get the best from him. Griezmann was told that his coach wanted him -- he was fighting for him to stay in fact. That he would get as many minutes as possible: 30 (plus added time) a week, every week. That he has a future at Atletico, and that his manager would again do all they could to avoid him having to go back.
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