MADRID, Spain – Atletico Madrid announced a contract renewal of Antoine Griezmann until 2022 on Tuesday as the player apologized for his dalliance with Manchester United.
"Atletico Madrid have reached an agreement with Antoine Griezmann to extend his contract for one extra season. The French forward signed his new deal with us that now extends to June 30, 2022," a club statement said.
The statement quoted the player as saying: "The first thing I want to do is apologise to people who have misunderstood any of my previous statements.
"It could be that I expressed myself badly and that some people wanted to put out headlines that were not really there."
The 26-year-old Frenchman upset Atletico Madrid fans earlier this summer when he told France's TMC television there was a six out of ten chances of him joining Manchester United.
A deal taking the player to Manchester United looked a distinct possibility at the time but the Court of Arbitration for Sport then upheld Atletico Madrid's ban on registering new players until 2018, overturning the club's appeal.
That changed Griezmann's situation, and Atletico's attention turned to making sure their biggest assets remained at the club.
Atletico Madrid have not released details of Griezmann's contract extension but reports in Spain on Tuesday suggested the player's buy-out clause remains at 100 million euros ($112 million).
🎙 @AntoGriezmann: "After the holidays, I’ll return with my teammates and the coaching staff to prepare the season" pic.twitter.com/OPTUiWbN7L
— Atlético de Madrid (@atletienglish) June 13, 2017