A group of Barcelona fans surrounded the car of forward Antoine Griezmann as he left the club’s training facilities on Thursday to demand he showed “respect” to teammate Lionel Messi.
The event came the day after the club’s presidential hopeful Victor Font made comments to Cadena Cope on Wednesday night: “Griezmann was a signing that shouldn’t have been made.”
Earlier on Thursday, a fresh report from Cadena Cope claimed that Griezmann had been hurt by such comments and it reiterated that he shared a strong relationship with Messi, and was puzzled by media reports to the contrary.
Last week, Griezmann’s former representative Eric Olhats inflamed the situation by telling France Football, as per Mundo Deportivo: “Antoine arrived at a club with serious problems where Messi controls everything. He is both emperor and monarch and did not see Antoine’s arrival with good eyes.
“Messi’s attitude has been deplorable, he has made him feel it. I’ve always heard Antoine say that he had no problems with Messi, but never the other way around. It is the regime of terror. Either you are with him, or you are against him.”
Barcelona news had been dominated by Messi’s demands to leave the club in the close-season and his future at the club beyond this current campaign is now unclear.
Those comments appear to have been the reason why the Argentine vented to reporters at Barcelona’s airport on Wednesday: “I’m tired of always being the problem for everything at the club.”
Griezmann has endured another difficult opening to the season with the Blaugrana, amid new focus on what his best position in the team can be and there are questions over whether he should be a regular starter going forwards.
Griezmann plays through the middle for France and is at the centre of attacking moves, whilst he is often played on the periphery for the Blaugrana to help accommodate Messi.