Antoine Griezmann, a surprising international retirement which concludes the last complicated months in Blue

Legend of the France team, Antoine Griezmann announced the end of his career in Blue on Monday, at the age of 33 after 137 caps.

However, he was there to start a new cycle with the Blues at the beginning of September in the Nations League against Italy (substitute) and Belgium (starter), after a complicated Euro, but Antoine Griezmann finally said stop French team, Monday September 30. At 33, two years before a World Cup in the United States, a country that attracts him, and while he is still in good shape and spared from injuries, this retirement comes as a surprise. Especially since he was only eight caps away from equaling Hugo Lloris’ record of 145 caps. But it also reflects a few recent months of “less good” for the Blues playmaker.

Brilliant in a more remote position than usual, in a relay environment, during the 2022 World Cup, his machine stalled a little afterwards. The affair of the captain’s armband, entrusted to Kylian Mbappé at his expense, after the World Cup in Qatar, had already left him a little bitter. “It was hard, difficult,” he confided to Téléfoot in June 2023, affirming that he had difficulty digesting the decision during “a day and a half, two days.”

“He was disappointed and frankly it’s understandable, it’s normal, it’s an understandable reaction. I told him that I might have had the same reaction in his place. He is 32 years old, he spent 10 years in the French team. He is perhaps the most important player of the Deschamps era.declared Kylian Mbappé, about his vice-captain.

But whatever his role within the team, Antoine Griezmann has remained a dedicated player, never stingy with effort, since the end of the 2022 World Cup. However on the pitch, his impact has diminished. He has only scored two goals since this competition, and had not found the net for a year in Blue.

Before the start of the Euro, in June of this year, the Madrilenian had somewhat angered his coach, Didier Deschamps, of whom he was nevertheless the “darling” according to his teammates. His statement on the Blues’ game, described as “boring to watch”had not pleased the coach and had earned him a frank discussion with him. On the pitch, during this competition, Antoine Griezmann was moved around with different positions, sometimes on the right wing as against Belgium in the round of 16, before being relegated to the bench in the quarter-finals and semi-finals. He only played the entirety of a match three times during this competition, out of the six matches played by the France team.

“I started badly, then I felt better and better, and I ended up on the bench”he regretted with a smile of disappointment, after the elimination of the Blues in the semi-final of the Euro against Spain, the country which saw him flourish at the highest level at club. “I tried to give everything, with a lot of position changes, I had to adapt all the time,” he continued, bitter. This evening of defeat, this July 9, he was also questioned about a possible international retirement. He then refused to answer.

Did he still have a place of choice in this French team? “It’s never easy to draw a line under the French team. It takes courage, lucidity and honesty and Antoine, in his analysis, did not lack it. reacted in a press release Didier Deschamps. A form of answer to this question?