Photo Courtesy of Alex Grimm via Getty Images, 2024.
On Monday, September 30th, the football world opened their social media accounts only to watch a heartbreaking video posted by Antoine Griezmann. He announced he was retiring from international football and would not play with the French national team anymore. This decision was unexpected and left his teammates, his fans, and the whole French population in shock. Griezmann is only 33 years old, which is considered young to retire from international football. It came as a shock as he was one of the pillars of the team and expressed his envy for several months already to participate in the 2026 World Cup which will be held in the United States. Griezmann is known for his love of the American culture and will most probably join his former teammates of the French national team, Olivier Giroud and Hugo Lloris, at LAFC to play in the MLS in the future. With such envy to pursue his career with Les Bleus, what made him take this decision all of sudden, three days before French National coach Deschamps announced the list for the next gathering?
Nothing has been officially announced by the player, but some reasons came up from journalists and fans. When the former captain of the French National team, Hugo Lloris, retired after the 2022 World Cup, Deschamps had to pick a new captain. Griezmann who was the favorite player of the French supporters, is seen as the glue that held them back with the team after the 2010 World Cup incident. Deschamps ended up picking rising football star Kylian Mbappe after his immense World Cup in Qatar, in which he scored three goals in the final. The confusion was immense after seeing this decision made by Les Bleus’s coach as Griezmann had more experience and was way more appreciated by the general public. This event shook Griezmann’s close relationship with Deschamps for the first time. It was during this summer while playing the Euro 2024 with France that Griezmann seemed to have felt disrespected a second time. Deschamps answered the demands of Mbappe concerning the ways he wanted to play, which impacted Griezmann hugely as he was not able to play in his former position in which he excelled for the past 10 years, being the pillar of the team. Griezmann ended up having a poor performance during the whole competition, costing him his starting position in the starting XI. Deschamps expressed himself following Griezmann’s announcement, which he did not know about before it, saying that the captain’s decision did not impact his decision but simply an erosion in time as he was getting older. Many fans are already speculating that Griezmann will end up like Zidane in 2006 when he came back from retirement to play the World Cup.
As of now, Griezmann is seen as the top 3 best player of whole time in the history of the French national team, behind Zidane and Platini. He played 137 games, starting in 116 of them; scored 44 goals with his iconic hotline bling and fortnight celebrations; won the 2018 World Cup; won the 2021 nation league, played the Euro 2016 finale, in which he was the top scorer and elected the best player of the tournament; played the World Cup 2022 finale; finished third of the ballon d’or twice (2016 and 2018).
But overall, Griezmann’s time with Les Bleus brought a whole new generation of football lovers, including me. He was my first favorite player and made me get into football when I was 11. I cannot imagine never seeing him play with the France jersey in real life. Unfortunately, the saga of the Little Prince came to an end too early leaving behind harsh but also unforgettable moments with Les Bleus. Griezmann’s last game with the France national team was on September 9th and we were lucky enough to witness 10 years of it.
Junior Agathe Vanmassenhove is the Sports Editor. Her email is avanmass@fandm.edu.