According to reports from Marca yesterday evening, Atletico Madrid have raised the release clause of long-term Chelsea and Manchester United target Antoine Griezmann to €80million.
The France international moved to Vincente Calderon from Real Sociedad only last summer in a £24million deal.
But having converted himself from a wideman into a striker at Atletico and resultantly finished last season as the third-top scorer in La Liga after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo with 22 goals, he was linked with a switch to the Premier League earlier this summer.
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Indeed, both Chelsea and Manchester United were reportedly considering bids for the 24 year-old ahead of the summer transfer window, back when his release clause was set at £43.5million.
But in June, club president Enrique Cerezo described the 18-cap international as ‘non-transferable’ in an effort to keep summer suitors at bay.
And according to Marca, they’ve now taken the extra measure of handing Griezmann a new contract which raises his buy-out fee to £56.5million.
Manchester United are in the market for a new front-man whilst Chelsea are looking at new attacking options following the poor start to their Premier League title defence, but a move for Griezmann now seems incredibly unlikely.