Antoine Griezmann’s legacy at Atletico Madrid

Spherical 29 of La Liga had just a little one thing for everybody. It noticed the biggest comeback in a league recreation for 21 yearswhereas a historic membership inched ever nearer to the abyss. It’s “as you had been” within the race for fifth place as Spain zeroes in on a further Champions League spot, whereas on the prime of the desk, Barcelona defeated Rayo by a solitary purpose to keep up its four-point edge over Actual Madrid – Los Blancos defeated Atletico in one of many worst-officiated league derbies I’ve ever watched.

It wasn’t lengthy after Jose Luis Munuera Montero blew for full-time on 95:49 (regardless of nominally including six minutes of stoppage time on the Bernabeu, you merely need to snicker) when Mark reported an unique: Atletico star Antoine Griezmann was on his approach to america, the place he was going to signal a two-year contract with Orlando Metropolis SC.

That report has since been corroborated in many retailers, and pending an official announcement from the membership, Griezmann – who turned 35 on Saturday – will go away Atletico in June after the European season ends.

Griezmann’s departure in June for Main League Soccer, the place he has lengthy insisted that he needed to play, will convey down the curtain on a legendary profession in Spanish soccer that has gone considerably underappreciated and ignored. The Frenchman’s 556 appearances in La Liga rank fourth all-time; his 204 targets rank eleventh within the competitors’s historical past, whereas his 98 assists rank seventh. By any metric, he’s a legend of the league.

However for his brilliance at Atletico, Actual Sociedad and generally at Barcelona, he has only a single Copa del Rey in home silverware to point out for being one of many nice gamers of his era. That every one may change on the 18th of Aprilwhen Griezmann and Atleti meet Actual Sociedad within the Copa del Rey remaining on the eve of Feria week in Sevilla. And although Atleti are unfancied to win the Champions League, their quarterfinal tie towards Barca guarantees to be goal-filled. Griezmann serving to his beloved Rojiblancos to a primary semi-final in 9 years can’t be dominated out.

What Griezmann and Atletico have meant to at least one one other can’t be summarised in a sentence or two, not even a paragraph or 4. I’ll strive nonetheless.

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For Atleti, Griezmann helped to usher the membership into the fashionable age; his aptitude and stardom introduced heaps of latest followers to the crew, simply as they moved to the glittering Metropolitano from the cherished however ageing Vicente Calderon. Habitually present within the shadow of Actual Madrid, its Bernabeu stadium, its 15 Champions Leagues (as Los Blancos’ followers will remind you) within the posh Chamartin district, Atleti have made a house in middle-class San Blas-Canillejas since shifting there in 2017. The membership’s latest change of possession and impressive Ciudad del Deporte plans could be attributed to a world profile that has grown underneath Diego Simeone – and through Griezmann’s two stints taking part in underneath him.

For Griezmann, Atleti has been his springboard to international recognition and superstardom. He twice completed on the Ballon d’Or podium, in 2016 and in 2018, within the crimson and white stripes; Atleti reached European finals in each seasons, controversially dropping the Champions League in 2016 however thrashing Marseille to win the Europa League two years later. Griezmann then received the World Cup with France and publicly turned down Barcelona – although negotiations for him to affix continued secretly into the following 12 months.

That revelation turned the Atletico fanbase fiercely towards Griezmann, who didn’t fairly discover the trophies he sought when he moved to Barcelona for €120m in 2019. Shunted to the wing in a loaded assault with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, Griezmann was fiercely whistled when Barcelona rocked as much as the Metropolitano that December; after 102 appearances and 35 targets in Catalonia, in August 2021 he made a shock deadline-day return on mortgage to Simeone and Atleti.

The membership and the pinnacle coach warmly welcomed him again, however it was one other year-plus earlier than Griezmann received again the fanbase. Some nonetheless haven’t forgiven him for leaving within the first place, they usually by no means will – despite the fact that he has since turn into the membership’s biggest goalscorer, with 211 strikes to his title throughout all competitions.

The 2025/26 model of Griezmann has steadily turn into one in every of my favorites to look at. Now not the 25-30 purpose per 12 months ahead, Griezmann has carried out one other profession transformation as a floating quantity 8 who makes use of his intelligence, approach and ageless class to key transitions and create pictures. After a interval in its place within the season’s opening months, Griezmann has returned to Simeone’s gala XI and has rediscovered his scoring contact; his 5 targets within the Copa del Rey are essentially the most within the crew, and Atleti don’t attain that remaining subsequent month with out him.

Griezmann is just not a participant Atleti can change. I do know this as a result of the membership has tried to do it earlier than. Joao Felix is likely one of the largest flops in membership historical past. Alex Baena hasn’t lived as much as the billing both, although accidents prevented him from taking part in repeatedly till January.

No, Griezmann is inimitable: a chameleonic ahead whose mind and work price matched his attacking expertise and pure aptitude. Simeone has at all times described Griezmann in glowing phrases as that uncommon participant who purchased into his out-of-possession ideology whereas standing out because the crew’s star attacker. It made him an idol.

Neither Atleti nor LaLiga will see his like once more anytime quickly, if ever.