Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann. (Photo : Getty Images)
Atletico Madrid striker Antoine Griezmann recently admitted that he is willing to talk with Zinedine Zidane if ever the Real Madrid manager will call him up this summer for a possible transfer move across the city.
However, Griezmann's acceptance of a meeting does not mean that he is ready to leave Atleti for Los Blancos as the France international had also confessed of his happiness playing under Diego Simeone with the Rojiblancos.
"I feel good at Atletico," said Griezmann, via ESPN. "First of all he'd have to call. Then I'd respond because he's a great player and a great person all the same."
Griezmann said that he is renewing his contract with Atleti and that he expects to spend his foreseeable future with the Vicente Calderón giants.
"But I feel good at Atletico. I'm in the process of seeing about renewing my contract and we're on the right track. So I hope we can finish it," he said.
Atleti is set to face Zidane's squad in the final of this year's UEFA Champions League tournament. The match is scheduled on May 28 at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in San Siro and the all-La Liga duel is a repeat of the European Cup final in 2014, Caught Offside indicated.
Real won that final, 4-1, following extra time with Diego Godin scoring the lone goal for Atleti. Griezmann was still not around for Simeone at that time as he arrived in Madrid from Real Sociedad in the summer of that year for a transfer fee of £24 million ($34.7 million).
Simeone hopes that this year's final will have a different outcome with Griezmann, who spearheaded Atletico with a double in their deciding quarterfinals meeting with defending champions FC Barcelona. He also scored the winning goal for his squad in the semifinals against Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich to lead them to the final against Los Vikingos.
"We'll play our match as normal even if people don't like watching us too much on the TV," Griezmann said, referring to Atleti's low-paced, pasty offense and stingy defense. "It'll be about being strong defensively, to make efforts for each other."
"The style of the coach is to give everything for 90 minutes and to give nothing away, to defend with 11 and attack with 11 - that's our strength," he added.
