Ivo Grbic returns to Atlético. The Croatian has played this season on loan at Lille, which A purchase option estimated at around eight million was saved in order to ensure the future of the 26-year-old goalkeeper. However, the French club will not execute it.
The future of Grbic was one of the many that the rojiblanco club had pending, since a good part of their income can come from their players on loaneither. Not only did the Croatian have an option in his contract, Morata and Saúl are also awaiting the decision of Juventus and Chelsea respectively to find out if they continue or return to Atlético. The Italian team wants to continue counting on the striker, but is trying to lower its cost without reaching the stipulated 35 million in any case in his assignment two summers ago. For its part, Chelsea does not seem to be going to pay for a Saúl who has barely entered Tuchel’s plans.
In the case of Grbic, his season has gone completely from plus to minus. He arrived at Lille and quickly became a starter, being able to compete in the league, the Champions League and return to the Croatian national team. Grbic’s first premise was to be able to have minutes after a campaign in the shadow of Oblak, where he had only played one Cup match with the rojiblanca. signed for make up for the departure of Mike Maignan, various errors pointed to the meta. Lille went down defensively after a year in which they had been champions and Grbic could not show the expected security.
Starter throughout the Champions League group stage, in the cup until elimination against Lens and between matchday 3 and matchday 23 of the league, the Croatian chained 29 games in a row in the eleven (35 goals conceded) until PSG’s 1-5 win on February 6 marked the end of his season. Jocelyn Gourvennec bet on Leo Jardim again, the team’s numbers improved notably despite Reinildo’s goodbye to Atlético himself and Grbic even dropped out of four calls, until returning to the bench without acting in the last three months.
Now, Lille has confirmed that it does not exercise the purchase option for the goalkeeper and he will have to analyze his future with Atlético. The rojiblanco club is still pending the renewal of Oblak, whose contract ends in 2023. Lecomte returns to Monaco without making his debut with the rojiblanca and Grbic is aware that being a substitute for the Slovenian implies not having opportunities except for unexpected setbacks.