Barcelona boss CONFIRMS Antoine Griezmann has completed a £17.5million transfer to Atletico Madrid after a season break

BARCELONA sporting director Mateu Alemany has confirmed that Antoine Griezmann’s move to Atletico Madrid has FINALLY been finalized.

The forward has been with Diego Simeone’s side since the start of last season after securing a two-year loan.

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A bizarre clause meant Atletico would have to buy Griezmann permanently for £35million if he played 30 minutes or more in more than half of his games.

To get around this, Atletico often substituted the 31-year-old after the hour.

Then reports surfaced last week that Barcelona had accepted a £17.5million fee – half of the agreed sum – to end the standoff.

And today, at a shareholders’ meeting, Barca boss Alemany confirmed that Griezmann is now finally an Atletico player.

Although Barcelona had to make compromises for this.

Alemany claimed Barca will be paid between £17.5m and £26m for Griezmann depending on bonuses, which is significantly less than the original £35m agreement.

About Griezmann he said: “We renegotiated the conditions with Atletico Madrid this week and depending on the bonuses we get between 20 and 30 million euros.”

He added: “It’s a massive, exceptional deal for us on Griezmann’s salary – and the same for Coutinho.”

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Griezmann is believed to be making around £300,000 a week at Barcelona.

The Frenchman has started just three games out of 11 in all competitions this season.

But that number is likely to increase now that his move has been made permanent.

Griezmann originally signed from Atletico for Barcelona in 2019 for a whopping £107m.

He scored 35 goals in 102 games for the Catalan giants before being sent back to his former side after failing to live up to expectations.