Sports Burst - The Barca Betrayer Returns!
By Tim Stannard
Antoine Griezmann makes a new video to win back Atletico Madrid fans after his Barcelona betrayal
Sports Burst will never forget that half-an-hour lost three years ago in its already wasteful life - Antoine Griezmann and The Decision. It was the time that the NBA-obsessed French forward thought he was LeBron James and people actually cared what he wanted to do next in his career.
In a flashy video, put together by Gerard Pique's production company, Griezmann hung with his racehorses, sat in his luxury house and taunted blue-collar Atletico Madrid fans with his agonizing decision on whether to continue with a multi-million dollar contract with the Rojiblancos or accept a multi-million dollar contract with Barcelona. We've all been there.
In the end, Griezmann opted to stay at Atletico. But just for a year. The Frenchman jumped ship in 2019 instead in what turned out to be one of the worst transfer deals in the history of soccer. And that's saying something with Barcelona.
Griezmann went to the Camp Nou for a two-season spell for $140m, failed to win the LaLiga but instead got to watch Atletico Madrid do it instead. As Joan Laporta cheerfully pointed out on Tuesday - "in football terms, he wasn’t a player that we needed."
The Frenchman was then suddenly moved back to Atletico Madrid on loan on transfer deadline day and during the international break, so Griezmann had been with France. But today. Griezmann made another video for fans - just four-seconds long rather than thirty minutes - at his first day of training with a second spell at Atletico Madrid.
"I'm back!" was the short message.
In handy timing, the clip was made the morning after the night before when Griezmann scored both goals for France in a 2-0 World Cup qualifying win against Finland to move him to within just ten goals of Thierry Henry's all-time tally for the country.
While the very likable Griezmann will have to work hard to win back the support of a very tough Atletico Madrid crowd, more goals like that for the current LaLiga leaders can't do his cause any harm.
But it might be in vain. When the Atletico Madrid president, Enrique Cerezo, was asked in July if Griezmann would ever be forgiven by Atletico Madrid fans for his Barca betrayal the answer was curt - "I don't think so."
Berhalter says that there is a way back for McKennie
A player who is no longer with the team is dominating the chat ahead of the USMNT's World Cup qualifier against Honduras today - Weston McKennie.
The very apologetic Juventus player was sent home from the team camp after violating COVID-19 protocols. TUDN is reporting that the broken rule was the footballer bringing an individual into the team bubble as well as the player spending a night away from it.
"it is what it is," sighed USMNT coach, Gregg Berhalter, ahead of the match "we’re obviously going to be missing Weston for Wednesday, but it doesn't rule him out for the future."
The immediate future is a classic CONCACAF away match in Honduras with the US looking for a first World Cup qualifying win in the Hex after starting the campaign with just two draws.
Nice v Marseille to be wiped from history?
Elsewhere in the wide, wide world of sport, decisions from Ligue 1's bosses might break the statistical universe.
A ruling has yet to be made on what to do with the abandoned Nice vs. Marseille match that was curtailed due to crowd violence and Marseille refusing to go back onto the pitch for the final 15 minutes of the game.
Well, L'Equipe says that the match might simply be frozen in time that way: no points awarded to either team, no replay, no finishing the match. And this begs the question - will the game show up as a loss, even if Nice were winning 1-0? Will the matches played, wins, draws and losses tally simply not add up? Sports Burst needs to know.
