Antoine Griezmann: Life, Clubs, Career and Stats

Binodh RoyPublished: 18th May 2024 12:49 PM

Antoine Griezmann is a classy player for Atletico Madrid with good finishing, pace, and quality in the air. He is one of the very few players gifted with the ability to score free-kicks, penalties, and outpace defenders. To know more about his career just follow the words.

He plays for Atletico Madrid and France having a great reputation at both places since his early days football has only been his passion.

However, life wasn’t easy during his childhood days, as he was turned down by many youth clubs due to his slim figure, until Real Sociedad.

Despite having a challenging spell at Barcelona, he managed to bounce back at Atletico Madrid, getting back on the radar.

Born to a rich and politically influential father, who was once the councilor who could afford young Antoine everything he needed as a child,. Whereas, his mother was a hospital cleaner.

All you need to know about Antoine Griezmann

Born in the great city of Mâcon that has was the birth place pf famous personality Alphonse de Lamartine (writer and politician).Located a bit towards the east of the town is where Griezmann was born on March 21, 1991.

From the moment they laid their hands on him the family knew he was destined to play football. A family tradition followed by his father and grandfather had a new generation carry the baton.

Bio and Physical Stats

Weight: 64 Kg
Height: 1.76 m
Eye Colour: Blue
Hair Colour: Light Brown
Football Information
Foot: Left-footed
Playing Position: Forward
Jersey Number: 7
Professional Debut: 2009

Early life of Antoine Griezmann

Griezmann began his career at UF Mâcon, his hometown club. During his time, he had to go through a rigorous number of trials to get into a youth academy as he did not fit the bill due to his small stature and light body.

In the early 2000s, the World Cup winner even faced Paris Saint-Germain youth academy during his trial with Montpellier.

This game has several scouts, including Real Sociedad of Spain in attendance. Thus, grabbing their attention, he got an opportunity for a week’s trial at the club, followed by another 7 days, finally confirming his youth contract with the club.

While his parents were a bit hesitant with the move to Spain, which changed after an assurance from the club.

Youth and budding years

Real Sociedad

Antoine Griezmann — Image Credits- Sky Sports

2005 was the year Griezmann started his youth academy journey with Sociedad. From then, he had to face a lot of hurdles for 4 years to finally land a place in the senior team.

On September 2^nd, 2009, he made his debut in a Copa Del Rey match against Rayo Vallecano as a substitute in the 77th minute. Later, that week, he made his league debut as well, versus Real Murcia. On his first start, he scored his first professional goal in a 2-0 win over Huesca. After that, he started making regular appearances for the club. His performance was consistent thereby, helping his side move up to La Liga for the 2010-11 season as league winners.

Griezmann signed his first professional contract agreeing to a five-year deal until 2015 with a release clause of €30 million on April 30^th. Prior to the contract, he drew the attention of Ligue 1 clubs.

On August 29^th, 2010 he made his La Liga debut describing it as”fulfilling his childhood dream”.The season had his moments as the player was getting on his feet when his team needed scoring against Raúl Tamudo against Real Madrid. In his first top-flight season, the side finished in 15^th at the end of the campaign.

The following seasons, he tasted more success scoring in important games and climbing the ranks as he secured Champions League qualification for his side in the 2012-13 season.

Till 2014 his presence with Real Sociedad was rock solid making him transform from a boy to a man.

Individual success

Atletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid was Griezmann’s home five years after he left Real Sociedad for £24million. At Wanda Metropolitano he made all the heads turn scoring 133 times in 257 games. His debut was in the first leg of the Supercopa de Espana, with Atleti lifting the trophy.

He was never short of success as he scored twice in the final of the 2017/18 Europa League as Atletico beat Marseille 2-1. However, Griezmann was in the Atleti side that lost to rivals Real Madrid in the 2015/16 Champions League final.

In his debut season, he scored 25 goals, notching 32 in 2015/16 and 26 in the following campaign. In 2017/18, he scored 29 and finally netted 21 times in his last season with the Spanish capital.

The Barcelona story

After casually etching his name in Atletico’s legacy, he rejected a move to Barca in 2018, later he angered the fans by leaving for Camp Nou for a forgettable 12 months. However, the manner of the transfer annoyed all the Metropolitano supporters. Moreover, the player moved to Barcelona before July 1, 2019, tampering with his release clause quite significantly. His time at Barcelona was a struggle as the Catalan club was trying to get back to their old selves and his impact was short-lived.

Atletico re-union

In 2021/22, Griezmann revived his relationship with the Atletico faithful after rejoining his former side on loan and made his deal permanent in 2022. Now he is the side’s all-time top-scorer with 181 goals.

Club statistics

Real Sociedad- 52 goals in 202 appearances
Atletico Madrid*- 181 goals in 387 appearances
Barcelona- 35 goals in 102 appearances

Success with France

Griezmann debuted in March 2014 for France under boss Didier Deschamps and two months later he scored his first goal against Paraguay in a warm-up match. He did make Les Bleus’ 2014 World Cup cut, which saw his country walk out of the quarter-finals.

2018 was the year he lifted the World Cup, winning 4-2 against Croatia in the final. Griezmann was the man of the match after scoring his fourth goal of the tournament and assisting two others. He won the Bronze Ball after being voted the third-best player.

There was a goal drought in 2015, but he got back the following year, grabbing eight in 2016. Six of those came at Euro 2016 where he won the Golden Boot and was also the tournament’s best player, despite France losing 1-0 to Portugal in the final.

After losing in 2016, France entered Euro 2020 as World Champions and favourites. They were off to a good start and finished top of their group which contained both Germany and Portugal.

Their first-place finish saw them face Switzerland in the round of 16, but after going 3-1 up, Swiss bounced back taking the tie extra time winning it as well in penalties.

Inte rnational statistics

France- 44 goals in 127 appearances

Antoine Griezmann Personal life

On June 15, 2017, Griezmann married Erika Choperena on June 15, 2017 and the couple have two children. Daughter Mia was born on April 8, 2016, and son Amaro was born there years later sharing a birthday.

His sister Maud was a terrorist attack survivor in 2015, while his younger brother, Theo, is a professional footballer playing for Sporting Macon.

During his time at Sociedad and Atletico, Griezmann created friendships with a number of Uruguayan players which turned to respect as he toned down his joy after scoring a goal in the 2018 World Cup that knocked the South American nation out.

Antoine Griezmann Net Worth

According to Forbes, Griezmann is worth in $61.5m and is one of the highest-paid football players having an income of $20.5m in basic salary as of 2020, with another $6.8m coming in from endorsements.

He has also promoted sportswear products for German company Puma and is a brand ambassador for Head & Shoulders shampoo and Gillette,

Being a keen gamer, in early 2020 he launched his esports organization, Grizi Esport.