“It’s up to the coach to decide. Me, I always want”. Coming out of the elimination of the France team against Spain in the semi-final of Euro 2024, Antoine Griezmann assured that he was still as motivated by the idea of continuing his career in blue. However, the native of Mâcon had a catastrophic summer. But in front of the media, the number 7 of the Blues left nothing to show about the end of his career in blue. “I started badly, I felt better and better and I ended up on the bench… We’ll come back! I tried to give everything, in different positions too, I had to adapt. (…) The bench? That’s how it is. This is the life of a footballer. Others didn’t play a minute, it’s not me who’s going to complain. »
Griezmann finally got tired
The question of a retirement of the vice-captain of Didier Deschamps’ band legitimately arose after a very complicated tournament. Downgraded, he started the competition as a starter before being sent to the bench during the third group match against Poland and during the semi-final against Spain. Worse, Griezmann was even publicly criticized by the national coach. A significant event since Grizou was long considered DD’s favorite. Faced with this, one observation became obvious: the Atlético player was no longer the untouchable, the basic man that he was in 2018 or 2022. To this, we must also add two other factors to this loss of influence in selection.
First, his chaotic return to the Blues last September and especially the armband episode of March 2023. Despite Deschamps’ attempts to defuse the affair, Griezmann never hid that his coach’s choice to entrust the captaincy to Kylian Mbappé after the retirement of Hugo Lloris was a very hard blow to take. It is therefore easy to imagine that the accumulation of all these events since the end of the 2022 World Cup ended up convincing Griezmann to say stop to 137 caps. Except that the timing of the announcement is striking. Why announce it just before the scheduling of two matches in a League of Nations without much interest and not at the end of a major competition?
Deschamps and his KO staff standing
According to The TeamGriezmann returned to Madrid from the last national gathering very tired. It was then that he confided to his sister Maud (who is also his representative) that the idea of retiring internationally was beginning to germinate in his mind. Mentally and physically worn out, the player then gave himself a few days to think, just to be sure that it was not a temporary bout of spleen. Unfortunately for the Blues, it was not. While the 2026 World Cup is only a year and a half away, Griezmann felt he had served his time and that he especially did not want to leave the France team on bad terms. However, only his sister and his wife knew the news.
The players and staff of the France team only learned the news recently. The Team And Le Figaro have confirmed that Griezmann called Didier Deschamps this morning before making his announcement. And the striker left no door open for a change of heart. The players learned the news like the rest of us, on Grizou’s social networks. “A clap of thunder, everyone was surprised,” we said within the Blues in the columns of the Figaro. The daily also assures that DD and all his staff were knocked out on their feet by Griezmann since the coach had planned to summon him for the next rally. Finally, RMC Sport also confirms for his part that the Madrilenian’s teammates were all surprised by this decision.
