Antoine Griezmann came on just after the hour mark for Atletico Madrid in their 1-1 draw away to Real Sociedad in LaLiga on Saturday.
It was the Rojiblancos fourth fixture in 2022/23 and in each of those, the France forward has been sent on by coach Diego Simeone around the same time.
Coincidence? It seems unlikely. Griezmann is in his second season back at Atletico on loan from Barcelona and FourFourTwo understands that the Rojiblancos will be obliged to pay a €40 million transfer fee to the Catalan club if the player completes more than 45 minutes in half of the games for which he is available.
"We have to make them understand that playing well for 30 minutes is more important than playing badly for 60," he said in a somewhat ambiguous reply.
"It's clear that they all want to play more, but the coaches look for situations which favour the team."
One of those situations appears to be the need to avoid paying €40m for Griezmann, which SImeone all but confirmed in the same press conference.
"You have known me for more than 10 years," he told a reporter when pressed on the Frenchman's situation.
"I'm a club man and I always will be."
Griezmann's place in the France team is understood not to be under threat ahead of the World Cup in Qatar, but his camp have made it known that he is unhappy with the situation – and that he is at Atletico to be an important player, not to make up the numbers.
