Man Utd’s Griezmann agreement examined ahead of World Cup final

Man Utd's next six Premier League fixtures

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One of the players who will be in the spotlight on Sunday will be Antoine Griezmann. He’s expected to start for France in the World Cup final, with the veteran looking to win the tournament for a second time. So, with that being the case, Express Sport will now take a look back at his failed potential move to Manchester United a few years ago…

In 2017, Jose Mourinho knew he needed a new striker – with the Portuguese in charge of United at the time.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic had been struck down by injury, with some wondering whether the Sweden icon would ever step foot onto a football field again.

Wayne Rooney was on the wane and on his way out of the club, with the veteran looking for Everton shortly after skippering United to Europa League glory.

And Mourinho didn’t fancy either Anthony Martial or Marcus Rashford to be his main man, with both players preferred out wide instead.

United then probed a blockbuster deal for Griezmann and, according to The Sun that year, agreed personal terms with the striker ahead of a move to Old Trafford.

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Griezmann had been in fine form for Atletico Madrid at the time, scoring 16 goals and registering eight assists from 36 La Liga matches in the 2016/2017 season.

And, for Mourinho, he was the chosen one.

United were confident of landing Griezmann, who was ready to join close friend Paul Pogba in playing at Old Trafford.

Pogba had even seemed to hint at a possible deal for his compatriot, teasing a Griezmann announcement on the team bus back after their European triumph.

The Atletico star was coy whenever quizzed on the matter but, at one point that summer, said there was a ‘six out of 10 chance’ he’d move to United.

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However, in the end, a transfer failed to materialise.

Atletico were slapped with a transfer ban, which meant they were unable to sign a replacement for Griezmann in the event of any possible exit.

And so he decided to stay out of loyalty for Diego Simeone and his team, before joining Barcelona in the summer transfer window of 2019 instead.

There were later claims that Griezmann had personally called Mourinho to explain he wouldn’t be joining United.

But the Frenchman then refuted this, saying: “No, no, no. No, that’s totally made up. False.

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“It was my decision. I communicated it to the club. That’s it.

“I have stayed mainly because of the transfer ban. Atletico needed me now more than ever and I felt I had to stay.

“It would be dirty to leave. I wouldn’t have been myself, or the person that I feel I am today, if I had left this club in that way.

“I spoke to Diego Simeone about the situation, our options and how he wanted me to stay to work out what we could do.

“Then we finalised everything with [chief executive] Miguel Angel Gil.

“I have too much respect for this club and the people in it to leave now because, just like Real Sociedad, they’ve given me everything.”

United would end up signing Romelu Lukaku in the wake of their failure to recruit Griezmann.

But while the Belgium international initially thrived, he lasted just two years before being flogged to Inter Milan by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

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