You can cross another striker of the Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United shopping lists as Atletico Madrid star Antoine Griezmann has signed a new five-year deal keeping him at the club until 2021 and his release clause has reportedly been increased from €82.3m (£63m) to €100m (£76.6m).
An Atletico statement read:
“Antoine Griezmann has renewed his contract with our club until June 30th, 2021.
“The French striker has therefore extended by one season his contractual relationship with Atletico Madrid.”
The 25-year-old striker joined Atletico from Real Sociedad in the summer of 2014 when Diego Costa had left for Chelsea. Only Cristiano Ronaldo (148) and Lionel Messi (143) have scored more goals in the last four La Liga seasons than Griezmann (70).
“I’m very satisfied, very happy to keep belonging to this family and this project. I want to improve every year, and the club, the coaches and my teammates can help me reach this goal,” Griezmann told the club’s official website.
“The club wants to keep the level as high as possible and we have to give everything to continue growing. I hope we can keep this way and continue with this progression.
“Personally I’d like to score more goals, have more time and matches to play, assist more. My goal is always to be better than the last season. At the collective level we are looking for doing better than last year as well.”
For clubs in the market for a top striker this summer, the list of potential candidates is getting smaller and smaller by the day. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is reportedly staying at Dortmund for at least another season and the ever-available Edinson Cavani is not getting anyone’s heart rate racing.
That leaves 28-year-old Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuaín, who is coming off a career year where he broke the single-season season scoring record in Italy with 36 goals in 35 matches or Spanish striker Álvaro Morata who has potential on his side if not much more. Both are available for €70-€90 million.
Will Arsenal or Chelsea feel desperate enough to overpay for one of these two strikers? They cannot go into the new season with the same striking options as last season.
Who do you think Wenger and Conte will sign?