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On July 15, 2018, the day France won the World Cup in Moscow, Antoine Griezmann reached the nirvana with which every footballer dreams. He was chosen best player of the final, in which he intervened in three of the four goals to Croatia. And so he was able to settle the championship with four goals and two assists in the seven games played. His small print was close in the French imaginary to that of old heroes, such as Raymond Kopa, Michel Platini or Zinedine Zidane . That night, while Griezmann bathed in cava and tied a Uruguayan flag around his neck in homage to his brother Godin, Didier Deschamps hid the smile for a while and warned: «Everything will be different from now on. When you are world champion there is nothing more » .

Griezmann, almost a year and a half later, is still looking for a way to contradict his coach. To also contradict those who encouraged him to conclude his sports career as a benchmark for Atlético (133 goals in five seasons). And to those who warned of an impossible cohabitation with Leo Messi . The Argentine he was waiting for was Neymar, not a Griezmann whose game characteristics did not match the left-handed position in 4-3-3, and for which Barcelona had to ask for a loan to meet its cost before the inquiring look of a dressing room who asked what was his. In the end, 135 million euros between the clause and the extra disbursement for signing the peace with Atlético .

This Sunday, Griezmann will step on the Metropolitan again. A stadium that he inaugurated marking, and where he will rediscover a fan who fired him without emotion . Like who scares a dove. To this he contributed that, once expressed his catholic love rojiblanco through the documentary produced by Piqué, prepare his landing in Barcelona while Atlético was playing life in the Champions League.

Mirotic t-shirt

The start of Griezmann in his new club has not been easy. The injuries of Messi and Suarez at the dawn of the season gave him a prominence that he decorated by blowing confetti the day he scored against Betis his first two goals as Barca. That gesture did not excite the costumes, and was nothing more than the prologue of a complicated becoming that led to the replacement of last Wednesday in the capital match against Borussia Dortmund. The injury of his good friend Ousmane Dembélé, which will be treated in Doha as he did in his day Umtiti, has nevertheless cleared the way to Griezmann. So much so that Messi, increasingly convinced of the need to have the former Atlético striker by his side, did not settle the task in the Champions League until he offered him a goal. His hug was received with joy among some executives who were already beginning to doubt the profitability of the operation.

«When I have the ball, I lack confidence to pass, to shoot ... But it will come with time (..). I am really shy and I have trouble going to talk to others. Suarez, Messi and I already had dinner together, and our relationship can only progress, ”the Frenchman confessed this week in an interview with UEFA. On Friday night, embedded in a Mirotic shirt - with whom he shares an advisor - he went to the Palau . Integration also happens there.

Griezmann goes to the Metropolitan seeing how his filmmakers have fallen. His average is now 0.29 points per game (0.51 in Atletico). But he has already received Messi's blessing . It's not little.

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Know more

  • Ousmane Dembélé
  • Neymar
  • Uruguay
  • Zinedine Zidane
  • Antoine Griezmann
  • Michel Platini
  • Leo Messi
  • France
  • Croatia
  • First division
  • FC Barcelona

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