As Atlético Madrid headed down the Metropolitano tunnel, having just eliminated Barcelona to reach the UEFA Champions League semifinals, one player peeled away from the rest.
The team had already applauded the crowd, starting with the stadium’s Fondo Sur before circling the field, but Antoine Griezmann wanted more. Hesitating on the touchline, he spontaneously raced back out alone, bouncing across the turf, clapping his hands above his head.
For a minute, Griezmann was the only man on the pitch, leading the celebrations of the tens of thousands of fans who had stayed behind. Griezmann, so often Atlético’s on-field conductor, was doing it again. He danced, punching the air, as his team headed to a place they hadn’t been since 2017: Europe’s final four.
“Do you know how beautiful it is to be in the Champions League semifinals?” Atlético’s beaming head coach Diego Simeone asked afterward. “Phwoar.” Griezmann’s dance said the same thing in a simple action.
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However, Griezmann will leave Atlético and LaLiga for MLS this summer to join Orlando City, a club that initially wanted him to join before the MLS transfer window closed but eventually agreed to a summer arrival. He knows his time left in Madrid is short, and every moment is precious. At 35, he won’t see many more nights like this, with 69,000 fans in the palm of his hand.
Griezmann is this Atlético team’s heart and soul, a club legend — their all-time leading scorer and fourth-highest appearance holder. He is also, alongside Julián Álvarez, the team’s best and most important player right now, even at the very end.
“Training with him every day, there are moments where you think ‘maybe you could stay a bit longer,'” Ademola Lookman, who joined Atlético in January, tells ESPN. “I wouldn’t say he’s surprised me, because he’s a legend in football, for what he’s brought to the game, for what he represents. Seeing that close up every single day is something you appreciate and learn from. It’s an absolute pleasure.”
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Since Griezmann’s departure was first trailed in February, his season has turned into a farewell tour. In the last month, he and Atlético have faced one huge game after another, as the fixture list has been full of meaningful matches with a high degree of difficulty.
On March 22, Atlético played Real Madrid in the derby. Then they played Barcelona — the team Griezmann contentiously left them for, before returning — three times, in LaLiga and the Champions League. In the Copa del Rey final on April 18, Griezmann played against his first club, Real Sociedad. And next up it’s Arsenal, a team Griezmann helped defeat on the way to winning his only major trophy with Atlético: the UEFA Europa League in 2018.
Atlético’s performance in this punishing run has been a distillation of what the team is all about, for good and bad. “This is Atleti,” Simeone said after they squeezed nervously past Barcelona 4-3 in the Copa semifinals, winning the first leg 4-0, before almost blowing the return.
Atleti means suffering, and doing things the hard way. Their victories — such as digging deep to eliminate Barça in the Champions League quarterfinals 3-2 on aggregate, despite a 2-1 loss in the second leg — are often agonizing. Their defeats, like being beaten on penalties by La Real in this month’s Copa final to deny Griezmann his first major domestic trophy with Atlético, are even more excruciating.
Griezmann’s career has been similarly defined by extremes. He has won one FIFA World Cup with France (2018), and lost another final (2022). He made himself a hero at Atlético, infuriated fans by joining Barça, and then came home to make amends. He has won the Europa League, Spanish Supercopa and UEFA Super Cup with Atlético, but never the Copa del Rey, and never LaLiga. And now he’s two games away from another Champions League final.
The last time he played in club soccer’s biggest match, in 2016, he missed a penalty in normal time before converting another in a losing shootout to Real Madrid. What might have been Atlético’s greatest night became their most painful. This is Atleti. This is Griezmann.
Griezmann already among the greats
“Antoine is a club legend,” says Mario Suárez — an Atlético academy graduate who was a first-team regular between 2010 and 2015, a former teammate of Griezmann, and now an ESPN analyst. “For me, [club captain] Koke is the club’s greatest legend, as a youth player who made his way up, a ‘one-club man,’ and the player who’s played the most games [for Atlético].
“But Griezmann is the club’s all-time highest scorer, and he’s the foreign-born player who’s played most games in LaLiga. And he’s so, so good. He’s a player who’s super intelligent. I was able to enjoy playing with him, and now I enjoy him as a fan. I hope he gets a good farewell. You have to say goodbye to legends the way they deserve, and he’s one of them.”
The numbers put Griezmann firmly among the most important figures in LaLiga history. Only three players — goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta, winger Joaquín Sánchez and midfielder Raúl García — have made more appearances than his 557 in the competition. Only 10 players — a Who’s Who list of icons like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Telmo Zarra, Karim Benzema and Hugo Sánchez — have scored more LaLiga goals than his 204.
Griezmann was already an outstanding prospect at Real Sociedad — the Basque team that gave him a chance as a youth in 2005 while French clubs doubted him — before signing for Atlético. He joined Simeone’s side in 2014 at their peak, reigning Spanish champions and Champions League finalists, and grew into a talisman.
In 2016, Griezmann ranked third in the men’s Ballon d’Or — behind Ronaldo and Messi — after reaching the Champions League final with Atlético and the UEFA European Championship final with France. Two years later, he was voted third again, this time having won the Europa League and the 2018 World Cup.
Joining Barcelona in 2019 was an ambitious misstep. A year earlier he had rejected the chance to do so, in a process made public in his self-produced, LeBron James-inspired film “The Decision.” When he eventually arrived at Camp Nou, there was no natural fit for Griezmann in a side built around Messi. Even so, his impact — with 13 LaLiga goals and assists in 2019-20, and 20 in 2020-21 — was greater than many might remember.
Back at Atlético since 2021, he had to work to win the fans back, with humility and effort. He succeeded, became a club record-breaker, and one of the team’s captains. Only a major trophy has eluded him, most recently in this month’s Copa del Rey final. Atlético last won the league five years ago, but Luis Suárez was that team’s focal point, with Griezmann still at Barça.
But beyond the trophies, stats and records, there have been countless moments of seemingly effortless, unimaginable flair and invention.
Watch Griezmann’s goal at Real Valladolid on Nov. 30, 2024, when he shared a one-two with Álvarez before spinning 360 degrees, with a dancer’s grace, to touch the ball past the goalkeeper. And then watch it again, and again, on repeat. It’s mesmeric.
The Valladolid crowd, with their team in the middle of a relegation battle, gave him a standing ovation.
American dream
A move to MLS was always Griezmann’s long-term plan. He’s a U.S. sports obsessive, who has even hosted an NFL show on YouTube.
“I’ve always said my target is to end up [in MLS],” Griezmann told ESPN in 2023. “It’s my objective, to be there and end my career there, to be able to enjoy the sports there. I’m a big fan.”
The question was when. In the first half of this season, he appeared to have been sidelined — Simeone used him as a substitute twice as often as he did as a starter, with Álex Baena and Thiago Almada earmarked to replace him.
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Why Griezmann move ‘makes sense’ for Orlando City and MLS
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A move to Orlando, even before the season’s end, emerged as a serious prospect. “He’s in a place where he deserves to choose what he wants to do,” Simeone admitted in February.
The only problem: Atlético were still in contention for silverware, in the Copa del Rey and the Champions League, and Griezmann was growing in influence. He started both legs of the Copa semifinals against Barcelona, both legs of the Champions League round-of-16 tie against Tottenham Hotspur, and the LaLiga derby with Real Madrid.
On March 24, his move to Orlando was confirmed — but it would wait until the season was over. He had unfinished business with Atlético.
‘Thank you for everything you’ve given us’
None of Atlético, Simeone or Griezmann have ever won the Champions League. The club has reached three European Cup finals, in 1974, 2014 and 2016; Simeone coached two of them; and Griezmann played in one. It is their white whale.
But still, as the team prepared to play Barcelona in this month’s quarterfinals, there was time for a moment of unexpected sentimentality from Simeone, as he interrupted Atlético’s press officer as he began the pre-match news conference.
“Before [journalists] ask any questions, I wanted to thank you,” Simeone told Griezmann, who was sat next to him. “Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for your humility. You’re an admirable person for young people, in a society that needs people like you.
“Thank you for everything you’ve given us, everything you’re giving us, and everything I’ll oblige you to keep giving us. Thank you for your commitment, for how you’ve always behaved as a professional. I consider you a player, and then a friend.
“God willing, we’ll play five more Champions League games. Keep enjoying it. I love you. If an Atleti fan were sat here today, they’d be saying the same thing. I identify with them. I’m your coach, and you know if you stop running tomorrow, you’re out of the team.
“That’s all. Sorry. I just needed to say that.”
Simeone had decided on the day that he would say something, a source close to the coach told ESPN. But neither the club, nor Griezmann, had any idea what was coming. The speech was unscripted; Simeone spoke from the heart.
On Wednesday, back at the Metropolitano, the pair will go again, chasing the Champions League dream one last time.
