Didier Deschamps has appointed a new captain in the person of Kylian Mbappé. Antoine Griezmann has been named vice-captain. This decision would not have pleased the Atlético Madrid striker according to Le Figaro who could think about his future in the France team.
With the departures of Raphaël Varane or Hugo Lloris at the start of 2023, Antoine Griezmann has become, with Kylian Mbappé, one of the executives of the France team. With these international retirements, the question of captaincy was obviously put on the table during this first post-World Cup gathering. At just 32 years old, Antoine Griezmann would, according to Le Figaro, “dream of wearing the armband”. A priori “stunned and close to K-O”, the native of Mâcon “talked” with the coach. During this interview, the left-hander would have “appeared dejected”. The choice of “DD” to place his trust in PSG number 7 would not pass in the eyes of Antoine Griezmann.
The former FC Barcelona player is Didier Deschamps’ man of confidence in the France team. He has more than once been categorized by his partners as “the darling of the coach”. With 117 selections on the clock, he participated in all the successes of the Blues. He is the 3rd top scorer in the history of the tricolor jersey with 42 goals, overtaking Michel Platini, he is also the best passer for the Blues with 28 assists since the start of his career.
In addition to being a monument of French football, he is a centerpiece of the Deschamps system. The last World Cup demonstrated this. Her failed final did not reflect her overall highly successful competition. He was arguably the team’s best player by playing a playmaker role. In Qatar, the player said he wanted to “give everything for the shirt, France, but also for him (speaking of Didier Deschamps). Every game, every action, it’s like a thank you that I send him. I want to do everything to make him proud of his number 7”. To be vice-captain after all the road traveled therefore seems to be synonymous with affront and betrayal for the one who has chained 74 consecutive games.
Born in Mâcon on March 21, 1991, Antoine Griezmann followed a path that was original to say the least. After a childhood bathed in football, especially around his father and his grandfather who were football fans, the young man knew very quickly that he would make his passion his profession. It was in Mâcon that he began his training from an early age. Endowed with an excellent playing technique, he very quickly attracted the attention of several clubs. But his stature, considered too frail, prevents him from climbing the upper rung. He was then rejected by several structures in France. Luck finally smiled on him at the age of 14, when Spanish club Real Sociedad de San Sebastian signed him. He chose exile far from his family to live his dream and stayed there for seven seasons, signing his first professional contract when he was 17.
After five pro seasons at Real Sociedad (2009-2014), Antoine Griezmann was the subject of a first transfer in July 2014, signing at Atlético Madrid, a deal estimated at the time at 30 million euros. euros. His debut for Madrid rivals Real Madrid is highly anticipated and the young Frenchman doesn’t disappoint, quickly establishing himself as one of the top scorers in the Spanish league. From then on, the career of the one that fans nicknamed “Grizou” will be written in red and white. The athlete’s talent is undeniable and the results follow. Griezmann will notably take Atlético to the top, or almost, vice-champion of Spain in 2018, 2019 and finalist of the Champions League 2016.
Often coveted during the transfer window by several clubs such as PSG or Chelsea, Griezmann will continue to wear the Colchoneros jersey before announcing, in May 2019, his wish to leave Atlético, probably to facilitate a transfer to Barça. The announcement was made on July 12, 2019 with a sum of 120 million euros at stake. But the transfer will be immediately denounced by Atlético, who believed that Antoine Griezmann had agreed with FC Barcelona before July 1, the date until which the release clause was still 200 million euros.
During the 2019-2020 season, Antoine Griezmann nevertheless joined one of the most prestigious clubs in the world. As in the national team, he rubs shoulders with very great football players, and in particular the prodigy Lionel Messi. But the sauce does not take with the Argentinian as with the rest of the team, in crisis. An uncertain positioning, a chronic lack of inspiration, especially in the Champions League, and a problematic inconstancy in the last gesture will weigh down his two seasons with the Blaugranas. The 2019-2020 season ends with 9 goals and 4 assists (15 goals in all competitions), its lowest record in seven seasons and a starting spot lost. The 2020-2021 season will nevertheless be much better, with 20 goals (making him the club’s second top scorer behind Messi) and 12 assists. With Barça, Griezmann will only have won the coveted King’s Cup in 2021.
In September 2021, first on loan and then as an integral part of the team, Antoine Griezmann will return to Atlético. After a timid start, he will injure his thigh at the end of 2021, which will considerably affect his appearances and his performances. Just like a new administrative imbroglio with Barca, forcing him to play only 30 minutes in La Liga games at the start of the 2022-23 season. At issue: a strange contractual clause which will force the Frenchman to enter only 60 minutes into La Liga matches, until October 2022.
It is only from this period that we will find the great Griezmann and his brilliant performances, with the Colchoneros as with the France team.
Thanks to his left foot, the doors of the national team were opened to Antoine Griezmann from an early age. In his position as a striker or attacking midfielder, he notably won the European Under-19 Championship in 2010. With the Blues, he rose through the ranks one by one in the under-19s, then in the under 20 years old, before being selected for the first time in February 2014 for the France team. Griezmann will score his first goals in the jersey of the Blues in preparation matches for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Substitute during the competition, he will come into play in all matches, without scoring, but already showing his full potential.
Participating in 2016 at the Euro in France, Antoine Griezmann has already changed dimension. He has just played in a Champions League final with his club. Tired during the first meetings, he will gradually impose himself in the French system and will finally be considered the best footballer in the competition by UEFA, author of six goals in particular. The striker therefore becomes one of the stars of the Blues, defeated in the final by Portugal Ronaldo. The same year, he will be ranked third in the Ballon d’Or ranking.
In 2018, during the World Cup, Antoine Griezmann was unstoppable, despite a sluggish start once again: he scored, among other things, 2 of 4 French goals in the final against Croatia on July 25, 2018, in Moscow. He will be voted the man of the match and will finish second best scorer of this edition with 4 achievements, behind the Englishman Harry Kane, tied with four other players, as well as the best passer tied with two other competitors.
His selection for Euro 2021 will allow Antoine Griezmann to enter even more into the history of French football, exceeding the bar of 50 consecutive matches in selection, despite sluggish performances and a less happy epilogue. France’s elimination against Switzerland in an incredible match in the round of 16 will be a reflection of their overall performance in the tournament: on alternating current with some good phases of play, in particular a remarkable defensive activity against Germany, Griezmann will remain ineffective against the goal with only one achievement (1 equalizing goal against Hungary).
After a few moments of grace found in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup (including a double against Finland), even more average performances in the Nations League will follow, including a ghostly match during the debacle against Denmark in September 2022. But Griezmann will bounce back again at the World Cup in Qatar, with a level and intensity rarely achieved.
Withdrawn into the position of midfielder from the start of the World Cup, the player chained races, pressing phases, recoveries in several compartments of the field and even often in the surface of the Blues, with some key rescues throughout the four weeks of competition. This role, more defensive, will not offer him (or more) the brilliance of an attacker (no goals scored in the competition), but will be invaluable when it comes to putting the French team back in the lead. the place in key moments. Apart from a disappointing and cruel final against Argentina, Antoine Griezmann’s performance, incredibly close, will be hailed from all sides, establishing him as one of the best players of this 2022 World Cup.
It’s a habit for “Grizou” that only insiders will have noticed: the Madrid and Blues striker always plays with long-sleeved shirts, even in the middle of summer or in the heat of Spain. From Atlético Madrid to FC Barcelona, ??Antoine Griezmann never got rid of this particularity of clothing. The top scorer of Euro 2016 explained it to GQ magazine the same year and has obviously not changed his mind since: it was then a question of paying a small tribute to his idol of youth, a certain David Beckham.
“I play in long sleeves because he did, I also took his number 7,” explained the 25-year-old at the time. “I’m an absolute fan. On the pitch, he already had class. And off the pitch, he’s always clean, well-dressed, well-groomed. I remember him at the London Olympics in 2012: he arrives on a boat and her haircut doesn’t budge! I’m a big fan.”
Antoine Griezmann has rather modest measurements for a player of this level (1.75m, 69 kilos). During adolescence, this small size had also closed the doors of training centers in France to him and it was finally the Spanish club Real Sociedad, seduced in particular by his technical qualities, his vivacity, his vision of the game. and his sense of goal, which gave him his first professional contract in 2009.
Another hitch in the start of Antoine Griezmann: the young striker of the Blues was suspended in 2013 by the French Football Federation for a night out, three days before a decisive match against Norway in qualifying for the Euro Espoirs (lost 5 -3). He will not return to the international team until January 2014, just before being called up by Didier Deschamps for the A team.
In 2020, Forbes magazine publishes the list of the highest paid footballers in the world and Antoine Griezmann is ranked tenth in the ranking. According to the magazine, the French would have pocketed 26.7 million euros at FC Barcelona in 2020. In total, the striker’s annual earnings would amount to more than 30 million euros, taking into account the salary in club, sponsorships and advertising revenue or even the various commercial partnerships. The football player has carried out several missions in addition to his club career: Xbox Series X ambassador, PMU ambassador, he has also worked for Puma, Beats or Sport 2000. Finally, he also created a team with his father. racing horses, another passion!
A fulfilled football player, Antoine Griezmann is also a happy man in his private life. Since 2011, he has been in a relationship with Erika Choparena, a Spanish citizen originally from the Basque Country. Before meeting the footballer, Erika Choperena had a fashion blog. The couple celebrated their wedding in Toledo in June 2017, just over a year after giving birth to a baby girl named Mia. On April 8, 2019, Erika Choparena gives birth to a little Amaro, three years to the day after Mia. Then on April 8, 2021, Alba was born, two years to the day after her big brother and five years after her big sister. April 8 is also their dad’s birthday.
