The 2021 summer transfer market is finished, as clubs across Europe worked intensely to close their final few deals.
Amid the transfer of Ronaldo to Manchester United and Leo Messi to PSG, the race was on for clubs around Europe to complete their much-needed signings.
During the final hours of the deadline saw major deals taking place in Europe’s top clubs.
In Camp Nou, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid have reportedly reached an agreement over a deadline day deal for French forward Antoine Griezmann.
Whilst it was first mooted at the beginning of the summer, it has taken until the final day of the transfer window for a deal to be completed, but Griezmann has officially returned to Atlético Madrid on loan.
The French forward has re-signed with Los Colchoneros on a two-year loan, which holds an option to buy at the end of it.
Barça, who paid upwards of £100m to sign the Frenchman from the Madrid outfit in 2019, are said to have been keen to offload the 30-year-old throughout the summer, as they battle through financial difficulties.
The Frenchman made his debut in La Liga from Real Sociedad in 2014, Griezmann going on to score 94 goals in 180 appearances for Los Colchoneros, before they received their record fee for a departing player, taking the forward to the Camp Nou.
Since his arrival in Catalonia, the World Cup winner has made 74 appearances for the Blaugrana, netting 22 goals and adding a Copa del Rey title to his trophy cabinet in that time.
The move see Griezmann return to Diego Simeone’s side after they triumphed in La Liga last season, breaking a seven-year wait for the top-flight title.
On the other hand, Barcelona’s rivals Real Madrid called off their proposed moved for Kylian Mbappé from PSG hours before the summer window was closed.
Real Madrid were thought to be hopeful of securing Mbappé’s signature in the last knockings of the summer window, and were rumoured to have tabled a bid higher than £189m to PSG. However, that did not materialise.
Mbappé – who already boasts three goals and two assists from four Ligue 1 appearances in the 2021-22 season – is therefore set to leave PSG for free next summer, after Les Parisians forked out £130.5m to sign him from Monaco in 2018.
