Maniche and Thiago Silva, who also moved to the Russian club the same year. Soon however, Seitaridis began to show his discomfort at the club, failing to settle in Moscow, and claimed the reasons he wanted to leave was that the weather was different from his native Greece and that he could not adapt to the cold. In his one-year spell at the club, he only managed to make 8 league appearances before deciding to leave. Atlético Madrid On 16 June 2006 he was transferred to Atlético Madrid for a fee of €12 million, being the second Greek footballer to play for Atlético after striker Demis Nikolaidis. The latter was the one who convinced him to join the club, together with his ex-Dynamo teammate Costinha who joined Atlético the same year. Seitaridis was sent off in the first half of his debut game, in the La Liga opening match away to Racing Santander on 27 August 2006. On 15 October 2006, he received his second red card only six games into the season, as he was cautioned twice in a home league game against Recreativo Huelva. He scored his first goal for Atlético the following year, on 21 July 2007, in a game against Gloria Bistriţa for the Intertoto Cup. In November 2007, Seitaridis damaged his achilles tendon in a match against UD Almería, which meant he needed to undergo surgery. His period of absence was initially evaluated at about six weeks, but he was ready two and a half months later, in April 2008. Due to his injury problem, he only managed to make 14 league appearances for Atlético in the 2007–08 season. The 2008–09 season did not start well for Seitaridis, as he lost his place in the first team to new signings Tomáš Ujfaluši and John Heitinga, and his heavy contract meant that Atlético was looking to sell him. Despite that, Seitaridis was a starter in Atlético's opening game, in a 4–0 victory over Málaga CF, and went on to make 14 league appearances that season. On 29 April 2009 however, him and teammate Maniche were suspended by Atlético's president Enrique Cerezo because they failed to appear in an Atlético home match against Sporting Gijón despite not being included in the 18-man squad. Two weeks later on 13 May 2009, it was announced that Seitaridis was released by Atlético a year before his contract was to expire,