Barcelona: Crazy financial numbers behind the contract of Antoine Griezmann

Antoine Griezmann was signed in 2019 after Barcelona paid a 120 million release clause to Atletico Madrid. Sensationally, this happened exactly one year after Griezmann made a movie stating his desire to stay at Atletico and rejecting the advances of Barcelona.

Fast forward to 2021, Griezmann has returned to Atletico Madrid, leaving Barcelona red faced over this entire shambolic transfer operation. There’s no way to hide the fact the preposterous mismanagement by Josep Maria Bartomeu and his administration gave birth to this debacle.

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Over the past few years, Barcelona’s wage astronomical budget has been through the roof. Ageing players were on big money wages, players with little squad importance were pocketing huge sums and bonuses were handed out like free lotteries. In the year 2019-20, Barca’s salary cap was 671 million euros.

When the Blaugrana bought Griezmann, they paid 120 million euros to Atletico and a further 15 million euros as compensation to avoid Atletico from lodging a complaint about making an illegal approach to the player. Now, the crazy figures behind the Frenchman’s contract have been discovered, exposing the horrendous state of affairs of the Barcelona financial department of the previous administration.

Barcelona was paying a fortune to Antoine Griezmann

According to Spanish publication Sport, Griezmann was earning a fixed income of 17 million euros in his first season at Barca which would gradually increase to 21 million towards the end of his contract, a one million increment per season. There were plenty of bonuses that were easy to achieve on the sporting level as an individual level.

Despite paying the release clause, the 30-year-old was paid a signing bonus of five million euros. Furthermore, there were three separate ‘loyalty’ bonuses that the Frenchman would pocket amounting to a total of 20 million euros had he remained at the club until 2024. There were even provisions should Griezmann help Barcelona win everything and he would win the Ballon d’Or.

Had all the variables been met and objectives achieved, Barcelona’s treasury would run dry, paying a grand total of 177 million euros to the former Real Sociedad man. Thanks to Joan Laporta, Mateu Alemany and Ramon Planes, this won’t turn into reality. In two seasons at Barca, the 2018 France World Cup winner has earned 46.5 million euros.

Laporta managing to pull off a sensational deal will for Griezmann to return to Atleti is a big win on the sporting as well as the economical front. Griezmann struggled to live up to expectations and even failed to take on the role of the talisman after Lionel Messi’s departure.

His return to Atletico Madrid on loan with an obligation to buy for 40 million euros will ensure more minutes for La Masia talents. On an economical level, Barcelona have saved themselves from another havoc by offloading one of the highest paid players at the club.

Was the entire Antoine Griezmann operation a financial and sporting disaster?