Antoine Griezmann contradicts his own last summer statement while speaking on Lionel Messi

Antoine Griezmann says it will be an ‘incredible joy’ to play alongside Lionel Messi, as Barcelona manage to land the French International.

Barcelona have triggered Griezmann’s mammoth release clause of €120 million to hire his services from Atletico Madrid. After which, Griezmann was seen in Nou Camp post his declaration as a Barcelona player.

The French International clicked with the Barcelona home jersey for the following season, and met fans while being at the Catalan club’s home stadium.

The highlight of his visit was when he talked about his expectations while playing alongside Lionel Messi, but surprisingly contradicted his own statement from last year.

“I’m very happy and looking forward to working with the squad and meeting my new team-mates,” he told the Blaugrana’s official website.

“It’s a new challenge, with new targets. I hope I can do as well as I have been doing for my club and country. La Liga, La Copa, the Champions League… I hope to win them here.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing what (Messi’s) like on a day-to-day basis, in training. Playing next to him will be an incredible joy.”

The 28-year-old forward backtracked from his last year statement, while speaking to the media, as he made an opposite utterance suggesting that playing in Messi’s shadow was one of the reasons he didn’t want to join Barcelona, when the Catalan club was about to sign him last year, but the French International refused to leave Atletico Madrid in the end.

“Was it hard to refuse Barca? It was very difficult,” he told FourFourTwo back in November 2018. “You have Barca who wants you, who calls you, who sends messages. But then there is the club where you are, where you are an important player and where they build a project around you.

“Subconsciously, being Messi’s lieutenant may have played a part.” he further added.

The world cup winning player certainly took a U-turn in less than one year, but since he decided to join the club, his perception might have changed in the mean time.

How twitter reacted

https://twitter.com/galaxy10messi/status/1149996445208064000