It’s a rumor that stuck with him for several years. During his lackluster stint at FC Barcelona (2019-2021), Antoine Griezmann was often portrayed as the unloved one in the locker room, snubbed by a resentful Lionel Messi after the Frenchman’s refusal to come the previous year. The Spanish press, fond of drama, abundantly fed this series of a cold war between the two stars, analyzing each failure as proof of disavowal. Today, with hindsight and the serenity found at AtlĂ©tico, “Grizou” has decided to set the record straight with a declaration that turns the neck on preconceived ideas.
Griezmann and Messi: the end of the Cold War myth
In a recent media release, the 2018 world champion lifted the veil on the reality of their relationship. “When I played at Barcelona, ​​the press wrote that Messi was unhappy with me. He told me: ‘Don’t pay attention, it’s just the press'”confided Griezmann. Far from the image of the sulking tyrant, the Argentinian would have behaved like a protective leader. “He responded on the ground. He let me take the penalties and celebrated my goals as if he had scored them himself. adds the Frenchman. A version that contrasts radically with the story of human incompatibility sold at the time.
If Griezmann’s visit to Catalonia remains a missed opportunity (35 goals in 102 matches), the explanation must therefore be sought elsewhere than in a supposed enmity. The problem was above all structural. Arriving for 120 million euros at a club in full institutional decline, the Frenchman paid the high price for questionable tactical casting. With Messi already occupying the axis and Griezmann’s preferred zones, the latter was exiled to one side, sacrificed for the balance of a wobbly collective. They stepped on each other’s toes, not out of ego, but out of redundancy in profiles.
Antoine Griezmann and Lionel Messi, during their joint stint at Barça. Far from the rumors of conflict, the Frenchman lifts the veil: “He told me: ‘Don’t pay attention, it’s just the press’. »
The curse of the “table”
What undoubtedly amplified the perception of this failure was also the weight of the words. By declaring that he wanted to sit at “the table of Messi and Ronaldo” in 2018, Griezmann had set the bar at a dizzying height. Every average match at Barça then became the trial of this ambition. By joining Messi, he hoped to share the feast; he finally had to be content with the tactical crumbs left by the Argentine genius.
With this clarification, Griezmann is not seeking to rewrite the sporting history of his time at Barça, but to clean up his relational memory. No, Messi did not boycott it. No, he was not an outcast. He was just an excellent player who arrived at the wrong time, at the wrong club, in the wrong position. By reestablishing this truth, he definitively closes the book on this Barcelona parenthesis to concentrate on what he does best: being happy and decisive, where we really love him.
