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Antoine Griezmann is officially as Barcelona player, with the Catalans having paid off his release clause to the tune of €120m.
The move has been a long time in the making and despite all the shenanigans involved, it was always a matter of when and not if Griezmann would become a Blaugrana.
As expected, such a gargantuan transfer would have far-reaching ramifications in the footballing world and in this piece, we shall be highlighting the four biggest winners from Griezmann's move to Barcelona.
#1 Antoine Griezmann
Antoine Griezmann's transfer represents an excellent opportunity for the Frenchman to advance his career in all ramifications.
For starters, there are guaranteed to be at least a trophy or two every season at Nou Camp and the winning of trophies ranks very high on the bucket list of every footballer, more so those at the highest level.
On his day, Antoine Griezmann is easily among the top seven forwards in the world and has two Ballon d'Or top-five finishes in his bag, but for a player of his ability, his trophy haul is rather scanty.
At 28 years of age, Griezmann has won just three major honors, all of which were won in the last 13 months and this is a rather poor return for a player who ranks among the very best in the business.
His move to Barcelona offers him the chance to rectify this anomaly, as for all of Atletico Madrid's progress in recent years, they have only one Europa League and UEFA Super Cup to show for the last five seasons and have found it difficult to wrest top spot from the Blaugrana domestically.
Also, Griezmann is bound to profit from Barcelona's global appeal and if he steps up to the plate; he would see a massive spike in his popularity and concordantly marketability.
If things go according to plan for Griezmann, his move to Barcelona would be a win-win on a personal level for him and he would be hoping to reap the dividends of his mega transfer.
#2 Atletico Madrid
It is hard to make a case for Atletico Madrid profiting from Griezmann's transfer, as they have lost their most consistent performer over the last five years which makes their rebuilding plans all the more difficult.
However, a deeper incursion into the circumstances surrounding his move reveals that Atletico had much more to lose than gain had Griezmann not been sold.
For starters, they have already expended huge sums in the ongoing transfer market, with the bulk of that going for the purchase of Joao Felix for the record-breaking sum of €126m.
This transfer was made with the premise that Griezmann's move to Barcelona was a done deal and there would have been more than a few waves of panic in the Atleti board room following the delays in the transfer, as a failure to conclude business would have incurred a massive financial loss for the club.
Moreover, the World Cup winner's body, mind, and soul had been set on a move to Barcelona, with new reports indicating he had agreed personal terms with the Catalans as far back as March while he had also gone public with his decision to leave the Wanda Metropolitano.
There was the danger of the situation spiraling out of control, as Griezmann failed to turn up for preseason, with the club threatening to fine him for his misdemeanors.
Had Griezmann's move to Barcelona failed, Atletico Madrid would have been stuck with a player who doesn't want to be with them, while also having a huge financial deficit following their expenses and the potential of an FFP breach and this is hardly the scenario Simeone would have wanted to begin next season in.
No matter how difficult his departure might seem from a sporting perspective, the negative ramifications had the move not gone through would have been too harrowing for Atletico to bear and as such, it was in their best interest that Griezmann departed.
#3 Barcelona
If Barcelona are to finally get their hands on a long-elusive Champions League trophy, strengthening their squad was always going to be a given and in this regard, the Blaugrana have made a statement with Griezmann's arrival.
While many might point to his poor record in decisive matches as a limiting factor, the bottom line is that there are not many forwards better than the French international at the moment.
If there is one thing Barcelona have struggled from in the last two seasons, it is an overdependence on Lionel Messi to provide inspiration in the final third and Griezmann has more than enough ability to help relieve some of the goalscoring workload from the mercurial Argentine and to some extent, Luis Suarez.
He maintained a decent record of scoring at least 20 goals in each of his five seasons with a defensively-minded Atletico and could post better numbers with improved service and playing pattern of Barcelona.
With Griezmann's ability, Barcelona could see their attack strengthened, and as such, would fancy their chances of going all the way particularly on the continent
# 4 Morata and other strikers at the club
As already established, Antoine Griezmann has been Atletico’s chief goal threat over the last five seasons and the underperformance of multiple out-and-out center forwards led to him taking on a central role as a makeshift striker against his preferred position out wide.
From Jackson Martinez to Mario Mandzukic and Diego Costa to Fernando Torres, the end result was always the same as none of the traditional strikers live up to their billing or performed consistently enough to be relied on.
This led to a lot of them losing relevance in the team, as Griezmann became the focal point of a defensively minded outfit.
His departure offers an excellent opportunity for the strikers currently at the club to take up extra responsibility and it is a chance that the likes of Diego Costa, Alvaro Morata and especially Joao Felix would relish and it is up to them to take their chances.
