The most enjoyable Griezmann Cup final

On Thursday, during Atlético de Madrid’s last training session at Cerro del Espino, Antoine Griezmann was marking the pace of a jog alongside Koke with a group composed of the vast majority of the players who will start the Copa del Rey final. Minutes earlier, during the rondo, he showed the same joyful air with which he tries to imbue his last matches as a rojiblanco and in Spanish football. The verb enjoy has taken on a predominant use in the footballer who attracts the most attention for this Saturday’s (21:00, TVE-1 and Movistar) match between the two clubs, Real Sociedad and Atlético, where he has felt fulfilled as a footballer. “When I am on the field I enjoy every pass, making a tackle, an assist, or an instruction from Cholo. I am really enjoying everything,” the French forward said on Friday in the press room at La Cartuja.

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For sentimental reasons, the final, less than two months before starting the end of his career at Orlando City in the American Major League Soccer, is very special for Griezmann. It was already very significant that in the emotional press conference he held with his coach ten days ago at Camp Nou, he did not refer to his time at Barcelona. His thanks were for his first team in Spain and for the one that elevated him to the status of a global star. “I have reached a football level I could not have imagined thanks to Real and Simeone,” he said with a very heartfelt tone.

Real Sociedad was the club that gave Griezmann the opportunity to reach professionalism when several clubs in his country had rejected him for being short: “I owe them a lot. They opened doors that many clubs in France did not, it will be a special match.” His time in the youth academy and the first team txuri-urdin shaped much of the footballer who was consecrated with Atlético and led the 2018 World Cup-winning France. From his friendship with Uruguayan forward Carlos Bueno in Donostia, his devotion to all things Uruguayan was born. Mate and meat barbecues with the Uruguayan cut, different from the Argentine, and even some nuances in accent and expressions brought him closer to Godín and Cebolla Rodríguez in his early days as an Atlético player in the summer of 2014. It was during a training camp in Jerez, prior to the Carranza Trophy, where Griezmann began to integrate. There, Griezmann wandered shyly through the gardens of the Montecastillo hotel complex, sheltering from the scorching heat with a tablet in hand.

Carlos Bueno not only taught him the customs and traditions of his country, but also how to protect himself in aerial duels and win them despite his height (1.76 meters). His progression in aerial play was such that the coach who made him debut with Real’s first team in the Segunda División, Martín Lasarte, another Uruguayan fundamental in his life, used him to defend against opponents’ corner kicks.

That Atlético reached the cup final and approached the final stretch of the season with the same untouchable status that, except for his first three months and the start of this season, he has always had with Simeone, was decisive for Griezmann to reject the real possibility he had of anticipating his move to the United States at the end of March. Before deciding to finish the season at Atlético, he had already shown signs of enjoying the pleasure of playing as a number ten.

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It is common to see Griezmann appear in free spaces to build Atlético’s offensive play. The pass he gave to Llorente so that he could run to the edge of the area and assist Lookman in the goal that secured Atlético’s passage to the Champions League semifinals is an example of that sharp player trying to be decisive.

Something that did not happen last year, when Atlético lost all three titles between March and early April. Griezmann was very involved in the Champions League round of 16 match against Real Madrid, the Copa semifinals against Barça, and the match where Atlético fell out of the league race at the Metropolitano, also against the blaugrana (2-4). However, he played too many backward passes and slowed down attacks. Nothing like the joyful footballer of now, who creates, assists, or scores without losing his taste for defending. “March hurt me a lot, I had many expectations, I didn’t know how to turn it around mentally, instead of focusing on finding another way to perform. I didn’t know how to do it. This year I have learned, I have understood what Cholo needed,” Griezmann recently admitted.

The role of leader

What his coach needed in the worst moments of the season were players who could steady a team with many new players that in the league has not reached the necessary consistency, but in the Champions and the Cup has been able to take Barcelona under Hansi Flick out of the fight for both titles. Griezmann and also Koke have been fundamental in this regard.

A year after that fateful March, Griezmann arrives at this Copa final as Atlético’s great reference. “He is a great leader,” praises Giuliano Simeone. And Baena, the player called to be his successor when he is no longer here, reveals who Griezmann is despite being the one who has pushed him to the bench: “The first day I arrived we trained together. I think Koke was there too. He welcomed me very well, gave me his phone number for anything I needed. Besides the player he is, he showed me the great person he is. For me, he is a support and a mirror.”

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