Antoine Griezmann

Antoine Griezmann is an international footballer from France. He plays as a forward for the Spanish Club Atletico Madrid. He plays at the same position for the French National Team as well. He was born on 21 March 1991 in Macon, France.

Background

Griezmann was born to a father of German descent and a mother of Portugese descent. As a kid, Griezmann began his career by playing for the hometown club UF Macon. During his time with the club, he embarked on several trials in many professional clubs. But he failed to earn a spot because of his light frame and size. While on trial with Montpellier in 2005, he played a friendly match against Paris Saint Germain. Because of his performance, he was successful in impressing many clubs and he was offered a one-week trial in San Sebastian.

Debut

He made his debut for Real Sociedad in 2009 in their pre-season campaign. In this season, he scored five goals in four appearances. He made his competitive debut for the club on 2 September 2009 in the Copa del Ray match against Rayo Vallecano. For Atletico Madrid, he made his competitive debut on 19 August 2014 in the first leg of 2014 Supercopa de Espana. Also, he made his youth international debut for France Under-19 in a draw against Ukraine.

Rise to glory

Griezmann became a regular member in the Real Sociedad very quickly. After he made his debut, he appeared in most of the matches of the season. When he signed a five-year contract with the club, he drew considerable interest with the Ligue 1 clubs Lyon, Saint Etienne and Auxerre. He became one of the prominent members of the team as he started scoring goals frequently.

Low points

In the late 2010, there came a period of nine matches when Griezmann failed to score a goal. He went scoreless for nine consecutive matches. The fact that he was scoring goals very frequently highlighted this period even more.

Records and achievements

In 2015, Griezmann became the French player to have the highest total in a single Spanish Top-division campaign. He scored 22 goals in that season. He was the only Atletico players and one of the three players in Team of the year at the LFP awards, along with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. He finished at the third place in Ballon d’Or 2016 and also in the Best FIFA Men’s player 2016. He was awarded the Best player award for La Liga 2016. Also, he was the French Player of the year in 2016 and he has many more awards to his name.