Antoine Griezmann a different version of himself at Atletico
The French forward is back to his best and is up against the Catalans
"It didn't matter the effort I was going to have to make, the only thing I wanted was to stay here," Antoine Griezmann said after signing permanently for Atletico Madrid again.
The French forward will line up against Barcelona on Sunday in the clash in the capital, having returned to his top form.
For Atletico he has contributed to 205 goals - between 147 strikes and 58 assists in 316 games across his spells there.
Without counting his first season, an adaptation year, since 2015-16 he has scored 36 more goals than expected (122 instead of 86.49) per Be Soccer stats, and provided 13 assists more. His value is now unquestionable.
At Barca, between 2019-21 he only scored three more goals than expecred - 34 instead of 31, and provided two more assistsd than expected, 16 to 14.
Diego Simeone has the best Griezmann back, and he's playing brilliantly in midfield now too, showing his fine vision of play.
For Barcelona he frustrated, and was loaned back in 2021. This season he was only used for the final parts of matches as Atletico tried to avoid paying the agreed 40m euro fee to sign him permanently.
Eventually they reached a new deal with Barca and Griezmann took a paycut too, agreeing a new deal until 2026 with the Rojiblancos.
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