“He was someone who could solve all the problems of the France team,” greets Bixente Lizarazu

Antoine Griezmann, the Atlético Madrid striker, announced the end of his career in Blue, at the age of 33, on Monday after 137 caps.

“He was someone who could solve all the problems of the France team”greets the former world champion and franceinfo sports consultant Bixente Lizarazu, after the announcement of the international retirement of football player Antoine Griezmann. The player posted a video to announce the news on social media.

During the last Euro in June, Antoine Griezmann “was put on the bench, he did not perform well, he did not seem in his usual physical and mental form”recalls Bixente Lizarazu. “It’s true that with the French team, he always responded, he was always excellent”, “but there, we felt Antoine Griezmann who couldn’t find his football again”and he also mentions “a form of wear and tear” that players can feel, “When you play at club level, in the Champions League championship and in the French team, it becomes testing”.

At 33 years old, the striker and attacking midfielder was, according to Bixente Lizarazu, “a complete, indispensable player and one of the best of his generation”. “He was someone who could solve all the problems of the French team and all the tactical problems of Didier Deschamps”underlines the consultant, “he did it without flinching during the World Cup in Qatar, where he played in midfield, he could play on the side, he was the best passer of the France team, a super shooter stopped feet”, he lists. “He was an eminently collective player, the most collective of this French team”.

Bixente Lizarazu sees the retirement of the former 2018 world champion as “a bolt from the blue”And “the more I talk about it, the sadder I am because he was friendly, he had a great mentality and a smile all the time, he was positive”. Retire internationally at age 33, “it’s really young”he believes, but he sees behind “mental wear and tear”. According to him, “there’s a disappointment, there’s something wrong and I can’t wait to find out what.”