Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone says it was a matter of "great pride" for the club that Antoine Griezmann attended Monday's FIFA The Best gala, where the France international finished third behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the voting for the best player of 2016.
Griezmann made the journey to Zurich knowing he had little prospect of beating Ronaldo or Messi to the award, and while there he also learned he had been surprisingly left out of the FIFA FIFPro World11 team.
No Barcelona players attended the ceremony -- attracting criticism from members of the Real Madrid squad -- with the Catalan club's players reported to want to focus their efforts on overturning their 2-1 first-leg defeat to Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey round of 16 when they play the return match on Wednesday.
Atletico's Copa clash with Las Palmas is 24 hours earlier, on Tuesday night, but Simeone said he was happy for Griezmann to attend.
"We are proud to have Antoine at the gala, for him, and for the group," he said. "When they asked me if he could go, I said it was a great pride and him being there would be good for him. He is in the match squad and we will talk about who starts the game [on Tuesday evening]."
Atletico are 2-0 ahead from last week's first leg at Las Palmas but will be missing attacker Kevin Gameiro, who has flu, while winger Yannick Carrasco is not yet ready to return from an Achilles tendon injury.