In top form after a difficult start
On Sunday at 4:15 p.m., Antoine Griezmann and Atlético Madrid meet his former club FC Barcelona. Ahead of the reunion with his old colleagues, the Frenchman opened up about his time with the Catalans and his strong form this season. The 32-year-old has a big goal in mind for the Rojiblancos.
“At Atlético Madrid I have to win titles to be a very important player in history and to go down in the history of the club. But I will also try to catch up with Luis Aragonés in terms of goals,” said Griezmann (quoted via “L’Equipe”) at “DAZN”. With 153 goals, the 2018 world champion is just one goal behind the club legend who died in 2014, who played for Atlético between 1964 and 1975 and is still the top scorer in the club’s history. “I have records on my mind and I can’t wait to get there. I used to see it as a long road, but now it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
With nine games missing in LaLiga, there is a good chance that he will reach this record this season. So far this season, the left-footed player is Atlético’s top scorer with 12 goals and 11 assists and is back to his best times, which led Barça to pay €120m for the transfer in 2019.
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Griezmann: First Barcelona year “complicated” – At Atlético in top form
However, Griezmann did not find his way around the Blaugrana. “My first year in Barcelona was complicated. I had to get used to a lot of changes,” admits the attacking player. In the summer of 2021, he returned to his old place of work, which at the beginning of the 2022/23 season became a contractual borderline case due to a purchase obligation linked to assignments, which often forced Griezmann to be on the bench.
“It was difficult because I saw that I could help the team. I was in very good shape but it was complicated. My wife and children endured it all the best. In the end, as always, hard work pays off,” sums up the attacker, who has started every game since the World Cup break and is instrumental in the strong form of the “Colchoneros”. In calendar year 2023, Atlético lost just one game after 90 minutes – on January 8th in the first leg against FC Barcelona (0-1).
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