It was at the age of 33, after a catastrophic Euro 2024 and with the approach of an expected departure from Atlético de Madrid for MLS, that Antoine Griezmann announced his international retirement last September. He should certainly not change his mind overnight, no matter if he was the great leader of Didier Deschamps’ French team, unfortunate finalist of Euro 2016 in Saint-Denis, world champion 2018 in Moscow and finalist beaten on penalties at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“Grizi” is still sparkling (at least at times) with the Colchoneros this season (12 goals and 6 assists) and Rolland Courbis strangely believes that the recent announcement of Didier Deschamps could change the situation. “La Dèche” confirmed his departure from his position as coach of the France team after the 2026 World Cup in North America. And faced with the agitation expected in the coming months, with inevitable comparisons with Zinédine Zidane, the much-touted next coach at the head of the Blues, can “DD” ask Griezmann to return?
“The possible return of Griezmann”
Courbis thus explained in The Big Mouths of Sporton RMC: “we are still going to look at Didier Deschamps. The Didier Deschamps who has just announced that, in a year and a half, ‘goodbye, thank you’. We will endure for a year and a half the comparison between Deschamps, what he did, what he should have done, what ‘Zizou’ would have done in the team compositions. Deschamps, is he going to make the same team compositions now knowing that he had the courage, the nerve, to announce that in a year and a half he would disappear? Will it be the same Didier Deschamps? The relationship with Kylian Mbappé, the relationship with a possible return of Griezmann.”
The return of Antoine Griezmann would be an improbable bolt from the blue in the French sky. The French team returns to competition at the end of March with its quarter-final of the Nations League against Croatia, with a first leg in Split on the 20th and a return leg in Saint-Denis three days later (Sunday March 23). . If the Blues do not qualify for the Final Four of the LDN next June, they will then begin the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup during this same international window.
