Antoine Griezmann no longer scores in the blue jersey, but he doesn’t really care. For the good of his team, he willingly leaves the goals to those who place individual statistics higher than collective performance. “Grizou” was however the top scorer of a French team finalist for Euro 2016. Two years later, he shared the spoils with Kylian Mbappé – four goals each – to become world champion.
Sunday, December 18, even if the one who was replaced in the middle of the field does not score in the final of the World Cup against Lionel Messi’s Argentina, his role will have been crucial in another way in the epic tricolor in Qatar . “I want the star and, if I have the star, I don’t care about the [style] game »he swept before the 2018 final. Under this formula, his current moult was already emerging.
Four years after the World Cup in Russia, the Mâconnais game has matured like the cheese of the same name. It has gained in flavor. On the meadow, the former striker has converted into an all-purpose midfielder, a successful hybrid of a playmaker and a tireless recuperator. His new duties did not however make him forget his ability to send beautiful balls to his teammates, like Olivier Giroud’s goal of victory against the English in the quarter-finals.
But now, in his own penalty area, he also clears dangerous balls, like a professional defender. Who imagines for a moment the superstars Cristiano Ronaldo or Neymar engaging in such work? On Wednesday, in the semi-finals against Morocco, Antoine Griezmann bowed to it three times, struggling to fill the gaps. A sense of sacrifice that surprises even his great friend Paul Pobga, who created a funny fusion after the match “Griezmann Kante”, in reference to the style of play of N’Golo Kanté, conspicuously absent from the World Cup, like the Turinese – injured.
“A deep game intelligence”
At a time when football exudes excessive individualization, and when more and more fans no longer support a club or a selection but their favorite footballer – a phenomenon clearly visible during the tournament in Qatar – why a player of this caliber, third for the Ballon d’Or in 2018, does he accept such an anachronism?
Perhaps because Antoine Griezmann is a player from another time, an unusual model of a star in the service of the collective, who would not have gone wrong in the romantic “magic square” of the Blues of Michel Platini and Alain Giresse in the 1980s. Let “Gigi” speak of “Grizi”, Madrid’s favorite diminutive: “Modern players evolve in a more direct mode, in percussion and speed. He has characteristics that resemble those we had. We played on the same bases of reflection, positioning and anticipationexplains Giresse. Each was able to analyze the game of the other. Obviously, he has a deep game intelligence.”
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