Revealed: The details of Griezmann's loan contract with Atletico

Antoine Griezmann returned to Atletico Madrid on loan from Barcelona last summer after two years at Camp Nou. The club negotiated late into the summer window over an exchange deal that would have seen Joao Felix move the other way.

Barça president Joan Laporta likes Felix a lot, as he's admitted. But Atletico coach Diego Simeone didn't want to strengthen a rival. Barça were keen on the deal because they needed to move on Griezmann's salary, so they still let him return to Atletico on a two year deal.

A lot has been written about the finer details of the agreement. What's true is that Barça won't receive anything this summer and will have to wait until 2023 to receive the 40 million euros which is the cost for Atletico to make the deal permanent.

The conditions are the following: The loan is for two years. Atletico will pay Griezmann's entire salary and have the option to make the loan at the end of the loan. The option becomes obligatory if Griezmann has played a minimum of 45 minutes in 50 percent of the game he has been available before. That means matches when he's injured or suspended don't count.

Barça are convinced it will end up being obligatory, given Griezmann's importance to Simeone. In fact, he has been available for 26 matches this season and played at least 45 minutes in 20 of them -- that's 77 percent of games.

Return clause

Another of the peculiarities of the contract between the two clubs is that Atletico do not have any escape clause after the first year of the deal.

In other words, the Madrid club cannot return Griezmann this summer if they are not interested in the French player. And if they tried to, Barça could refuse to welcome back the striker, who has scored eight goals so far this season. So this summer there will be no news about Griezmann and Barça will have to wait until 2023 to have 40 million more in their accounts.