Under the guidance of coach Didier Deschamps, France’s Antoine Griezmann has undergone a remarkable transformation from free-scoring forward to marauding midfielder, his versatile skills now focused on breaking up the opposition’s play and allowing his teammates to score. The outcome of Sunday’s World Cup final is likely to hinge on his duel with Argentina’s Leo Messi.
France’s most prolific striker until not so long ago, Griezmann has stopped scoring for Les Bleus. Not that his coach would care. By every other measure, “Grizou’s” contribution to the team has grown exponentially even as he retreats farther away from the opposition’s goal, morphing into the maestro of Deschamps’ finely tuned orchestra – and Les Bleus’ most valuable team player.
Griezmann, 31, acknowledged as much himself, telling a press conference in Qatar that he was “not worried” about scoring goals. “I think the team needs me more at the heart of the action,” he added. “We need that balance.”
The Frenchman’s extraordinary conversion from sparkling forward to tireless playmaker – and breaker – was largely dictated by necessity after Les Bleus were hit by a string of injuries prior to the tournament. The loss of Paul Pogba and N'Golo Kante – the cornerstones of France’s World Cup-winning midfield four years ago – forced Deschamps to come up with a new structure that hinges on Griezmann’s versatility.
France’s top scorer at Euro 2016 and – jointly with Kylian Mbappé – the 2018 World Cup, Griezmann is now as much a creator of goals as he is a tireless defender. In Qatar, he has operated in a midfield trio, recovering balls and supplying them to forwards Mbappé, Olivier Giroud and Ousmane Démbélé.
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A selfless team player, Griezmann had already been outstanding before his master class against England in the quarter-finals, when he robbed possession and committed tactical fouls before producing a brilliant assist for Giroud's winner. He was equally decisive in the semi-final against Morocco, regularly helping to break up possession when France were under pressure.
Throughout the tournament, he has filled in for the squad’s many absentees, who also include injured Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema. Les Bleus’ hopes of winning consecutive World Cup titles on Sunday will rest largely on his ability to frustrate Argentina’s Messi while feeding the ball to the likes of Mbappé.
“He is doing the job of Pogba, Kante and Benzema,” former Argentina defender Pablo Zabaleta told AFP ahead of Sunday’s final. “He is exceptional in every way,” added Luis Fernandez, the 1984 European champion midfielder. “He is everywhere, he is effective and he brings his own touch.”
An émigré in Spain
Elegant and always perfectly timed, the Griezmann touch is a product of his football schooling in Spain, where he was able to thrive as a teenager after French academies – then obsessed by tall and muscular physiques of the Patrick Vieira type – deemed him too gracile. The young Frenchman inherited the vision and slick passing game of Spain’s finest footballers while also adopting the punishing work ethic, discipline and tactical mindset that define his club, Atletico Madrid.
Reflecting on his affinity with Spanish football, Griezmann has stressed the importance given to the collective over the individual. “In France, people sometimes play against one another, hoping to take their teammates’ place on the field,” he told Le Monde back in 2016. “In Spain, substitute or not, everyone plays together. The team comes first.”
Griezmann’s slender build and boyish good looks have earned him the nickname “The Little Prince”. But he is uniquely focused when it comes to implementing a game plan – and is arguably Deschamps’ most indispensable player, having not missed a match for France since June 2017.
With Sunday’s final, Griezmman will have amassed an astonishing tally of 74 consecutive matches for Les Bleus – 30 more than the previous record set by Vieira. He has shattered a number of other French records, surpassing the great Zinedine Zidane with 28 assists for France.
Such figures explain why Deschamps never lost faith in him even as he struggled earlier this season at Atletico after returning from an unhappy spell with La Liga rivals Barcelona – where he languished in Messi’s shadow. At first, Atletico only used him for 30 minutes per match to avoid paying a bonus to Barça. The dispute was eventually resolved when the player agreed to a hefty pay cut.
Since then, Griezmann has recovered the serenity and insouciance that define Les Bleus under Deschamps, allowing the French to withstand pressure from their opponents without ever folding. As always, he has raised his game at the World Cup, football’s biggest stage.
“When he plays for France, he transcends himself, he bends over backwards”, becoming “another player”, said former Senegalese striker El-Hadji Diouf.
France’s “Little Prince” has also matured off the pitch, growing more outspoken as he burnishes his public image. In 2020, he tweeted his “pain for France” following a brutal police beating of a Black man that was caught on camera. A month later, he severed a lucrative advertising contract with China’s Huawei over “strong suspicions” of the company’s involvement in the surveillance of Muslim Uighurs.
While others in the French squad have studiously avoided taking questions on Qatar’s human rights record, Griezmann has reiterated his support for the LGBT cause during the tournament. Asked during a press conference whether he had any qualms about taking part in the World Cup, he answered “yes and no”.
“Wherever I am in the world, they (LGBT people) know they will always have my support,” he said. “But when my country calls me to play a competition, I come with pride.”
