Antoine Griezmann may never have been Spanish champion with Real Sociedad, Atlético de Madrid and Barça, but he achieved the feat of starting his 15th season in La Liga last Monday with the Colchnoeros (for a 2-2 draw against Villarreal). “Grizi” is the active French player to have played the most seasons in one of the four major European championships.
This is quite a performance for the Mâcon native who was trained at Real Sociedad and started in the Spanish D1 at 18 years old. For comparison, Kylian Mbappé is playing his first season outside of Ligue 1 four months before his 26th birthday. And Karim Benzema stopped, last year, after 14 seasons in the Spanish Liga, all with Real Madrid of course.
Distin and Frey like Griezmann
Two French players have also managed to play 15 seasons in a top league of the Old Continent: central defender Sylvain Distin in the Premier League (with Newcastle, Manchester City, Portsmouth, Everton and Bournemouth from 2001 to 2016) and goalkeeper Sébastien Frey in Serie A (with Inter Milan, Héllas Verona, Parma, Fiorentina and Genoa from 1998 to 2013).
Like Benzema, two other former French internationals played 14 seasons in one of the four best European championships, namely Nicolas Anelka and Gaël Clichy, both in England. The striker with Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Bolton, Chelsea and West Brom (from 1996 to 2014) and the left-back with Arsenal and Manchester City (from 2003 to 2017). Anelka also played one season in La Liga with Real Madrid and a few months in Serie A with Juventus.
