Real Sociedad´s Antoine Griezmann has used a Press conference to apologise to fans, the club and his teammates following comments attributed to him in the wake of a proposed move to Atlético Madrid over the summer.
The highly-rated French winger has been coveted by a number of clubs, including Barcelona, Inter Milan and Valencia, but Atlético have been the only ones to have made a formal offer. Los Rojiblancos informed Real on July 19 they were prepared to pay €7m plus Fran Mérida and Raúl García for Griezmann, prompting the 20-year-old, in an interview with French newspaper L´Equipe, to say he wanted to leave the San Sebastián club to play alongside stars such as Diego Forlán. He followed this up by asking for a pay rise, but despite reiterating to the same newspaper he still wanted to go to Madrid told Real Sociedad´s official website that he wanted to stay at Anoeta.
All of which led to a meeting with Txuri-urdin director of football Loren, after which Griezmann insisted everything had been sorted out: “I would like to apologise to the fans, the club and my teammates,” he said. “I spoke with Loren and he showed his unhappiness with me, but I repeated to him that what I have wanted from the start is to remain with Real Sociedad, because that is what is best for me.”
Griezmann also maintained he had been misinterpreted: “I was misunderstood and I will show the fans that on the pitch. They can whistle me at Anoeta but I will continue to give everything for Real. I never said I wanted to leave. It came from several newspapers that claimed I wanted to go, but I never said that. I only said I´d like to play with world-class players, from which I can learn, but I am fine here and want to enjoy it.”
He added: “I am only 20-years-of-age and want to get better. My aim is to play in the Champions League and the World Cup, but I´ve got plenty of time and right now I just want to have a good season for myself, the club and the supporters.”
Whether the Real Sociedad faithful will be quite so forgiving is another matter as at Thursday training Griezmann was greeted with shouts of “traidor!” (traitor) from various fans.
Source: http://www.adifferentleague.co.uk/p6_1_9187_griezmann-i-never-said-i-wanted-to-go-to-atl%C3%A9tico-madrid.html
No comments:
Post a Comment