Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo believes the club’s star attacking player Antoine Griezmann is “2000 percent staying.”
The Atleti supremo believes the 28-year-old has no intentions of leaving the club having penned a new long-term contract last summer and rejecting interesting from Barcelona.
Cerezo had previously said that the Frenchman was 1000 percent staying in the Spanish capital, but he revised the likelihood when pushed on the issue on Thursday night.
Such was the certainty with which the president possessed on the player, he even drew the comparison of a move with his side signing Barcelona star Lionel Messi.
“No he is not 1000 percent likely to stay at Atleti, he is 2000 percent likely,” Cerezo told Catalan radio station RAC1.
“And we have not spoken with Lionel Messi. You are talking about Griezmann, not Messi? But we have not spoken to Messi – the two situations are the same.”
A report in El Mundo Deportivo last week outlined how Griezmann’s ‘proven quality and fixed price of €120m’ – relating to the forward’s release clause – is why the Blaugrana are interested in a summer deal.
The Frenchman does have a release clause in his new contract, that drops from €200m to €120m at the end of the current season, and that may tempt the current La Liga leaders to return with a second bid.
Griezmann has netted 19 goals this campaign for Diego Simeone’s side.
