Barcelona will reportedly still have to splash out €200m on Antoine Griezmann if they wish to prise him away from Atletico Madrid in the near future.
The French international’s €200m release clause was halved after the summer transfer window came to an end, as Atleti had agreed with him to put it in place while their transfer ban was still in effect.
According to Mundo Deportivo, that has now dropped to €100m which naturally will give interested parties such as Manchester United a better chance of signing Griezmann in 2018.
However, the report goes on to add that the drop in the release clause doesn’t apply to Barcelona, and so if they harbour ambitions of trying to sign the forward, they’ll still have to spend €200m to prise him away from Diego Simeone’s squad.
The 25-year-old has firmly established himself as one of the best in Europe with his performances for Atletico in recent years, scoring 83 goals in 161 appearances in all competitions since he arrived at the club in 2014.
In turn, speculation of interest from giants around Europe has never been far away, and this latest report would suggest that Barcelona could be interested in entering the race as they look to continue to strengthen their squad after selling Neymar this past summer.
Ousmane Dembele arrived in a big-money move, while Nelson Semedo and Paulinho add quality to other departments. However, if Barcelona do have an eye on Griezmann moving forward, they will be severely disadvantaged by the clause in question it seems.