Atlético Madrid CEO makes surprising Barcelona revelation

Jordan Russell (@JordRuss96)
31 dic 2017

During a radio interview on Friday night, Atlético Madrid CEO Miguel Ángel Gil revealed how close Barcelona were to signing Saúl Ñíguez last summer. He said: “Bartomeu called to tell me they were looking for a player with Saúl’s characteristics and that they intended to pay his release clause.” However, no deal was ever finalised due to economic issues.

Meanwhile, when asked about the Blaugrana’s interest in Antoine Griezmann, Gil replied: “It has taken a lot of hard work to get Diego Costa and Griezmann together and we will try to maintain that. Atlético have no intention of selling him. We are not looking to punish Barcelona, but to protect ourselves. It is obvious that there has been contact between the two parties, but we do not want sanctions imposed. We only want respect.

“To this day, relations between Atlético Madrid and Barcelona are very good, but when someone does something they shouldn’t we have to defend ourselves in order to maintain the integrity of the competition.”