Atlético Madrid will take over a Timo Werner-less RB Leipzig in the current quarter-finals of the Champions League. The transfer of the goal machine to Chelsea will have made Jan Oblak’s job a little easier, which he certainly does not care.
He also has big ambitions, ambitions that have not been fulfilled by Atléti in the league this season (finished third, but well ahead of Real Madrid and Barcelona by 17 and 12 points respectively) and which have yet to be fulfilled. by Atléti in Europe since reaching the Champions League final in 2016, in Oblak’s first full season as a starting defender. They may have won the Europa League a few years later, but that is not the European award on which the 27-year-old has put his mind and heart.
“That is the purpose of the club and its needs [qualifying for the Champions League] and then there’s what I had in mind, my hope. This was to compete more with Barca and [Real] Madrid until the end of the season, but it could not be. The goal of the club was fulfilled, but my hopes were not fulfilled. ‘
On the surface, this makes Oblak just an ambitious competitor, which we should expect from someone who is one of the toughest in the world and who has been a major player for Diego Simeone for the last half decades. And Atléti are always in the title conversation, both in Europe and in Spain, and that’s not a terrible place to be – even if actual silverware is limited to just the only so-called Europa League.
But combined with the recent Chelsea rumors, and his deliberate deflection of that question at the same press conference, there is a lot of room left for rumor mills.
“This is not the time for that, now it’s Leipzig. I’ll look back on the season when the last game is over, and hopefully we have three more [games to play]. Then it’s time to talk. But first, Leipzig. I’m really looking forward to it. “
-Jan Oblak; source: AS via Metro
Of course, this means nothing in the real world, and it reduces Oblak’s € 120 million buyout clause, etc., but it’s fun to speculate.
