Getting up from his chair, once the exchange is over, Antoine Griezmann cannot contain a sigh of relief. ” That’s done ! It’s been a very long time”, he says. A half-hour face-to-face interview, in French moreover, is an unusual event for the 2018 world champion with the French football team. A test, one would even be tempted to write, for one who, by his own admission, “expresses himself better in Spanish” and confides “not being very comfortable” with public speaking, which he enjoys little.
To talk about his club, Atlético de Madrid, the Blues and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (JO), to which he is going “do everything to participate”, the attacker, almost 33 years old, agreed to ignore it. This Friday, February 16, it is under the radiant sun of Majadahonda, a chic suburb in the west of the Spanish capital, where the Colchoneros training center is located, that the French international with 127 caps receives The world. The late morning training session has just ended, the shower has been taken, the hair is arranged one last time for the photo shoot: “Grizou” is ready.
He is even more so since, the evening before, he was able to warm up, microphone in hand, in front of 150 people hanging on his lips. The ceremony, organized in a small group by Atlético in one of the rooms of the Civitas Metropolitano stadium, paid tribute to the man who became, on January 10, the top scorer in its history. “There was a facilitator to help me, so it was easier”declares with a smile the Mâconnais, who arrived in Spain at the age of 14 and in Madrid at 23. “I don’t like being praised so much, so I was a little embarrassedhe confesses, his gaze shifting. But it was really touching and, for once, I accepted it. It allowed me to achieve what I have already done and it pushes me to do even more. »
By marking the history of a great foreign team, he imitated some of his illustrious compatriots. Such as Thierry Henry at Arsenal, Michel Platini at Juventus Turin or even Eric Cantona at Manchester United. For the moment, these comparisons don’t matter to him. But in honor of his services rendered, the player, under contract until 2026, hopes to obtain permission for the Olympic period.
“I will have a discussion with the leaders, in due time, to find out if they will let me go”, he assures. Like other professional clubs, Atlético is not forced to give up its players for the Olympic tournament, as it is not part of the official calendar of the International Football Federation.
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