Messi wants Antoine Griezmann to replace Luis Suarez next season

Things can go wrong even between the best of friends as Lionel Messi could potentially derail his friendship with Luis Suarez by asking the Barcelona board to replace the Uruguayan with Antoine Griezmann.

Luis Suarez’s form this season has not been up to his usual standards and that has certainly placed even more load on Messi’s shoulders. Though the Argentine has started the season in brilliant fashion, Barcelona cannot completely rely on Messi to provide the goals for the team.

Suarez was supposed to become even more important now that Neymar is no longer at the Nou Camp. But things have not gone according to plan as injuries and a lack of form has seen Suarez enter his worst phase as a Barcelona player.

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And Messi cannot have passengers in the squad which is why he has demanded the signing of Antoine Griezmann from Atletico Madrid.

The darling of French football, Greizmann broke out into a global star after his sparkling performances in Euro 2016. After a brilliant season with Atletico, Griezmann backed it up with his national side as he was instrumental in France’s road to the final.

The English media was sure that Greizmann would leave Spain and join Manchester United last summer, as it was said the United had saved the number seven jersey for the forward. But it did not come to fruition as the forward remained at Atletico.

But now it seems as if Barcelona have found a secret clause that could see them capture the forward on a cheap deal.

It is said that Greizmann has a release clause of 100 million that needs to activated before July 1st. But after that date, the clause could go as high at 200 million.

Barcelona realize that they will need to act fast if they want to buy the forward, which is why they will be looking to jump ahead of the queue before July 1st.