Antoine Griezmann: Atletico’s joint-record scorer and his path to legendary status

“For Antoine to be Atletico’s joint top scorer, after all that has happened, his whole story with Atletico, will make him so proud,” says Diego Godin.

“It is an honour, at a club with so much history. It’s not a small thing. For us who were his team-mates, his captains, and as his friend, it makes me very happy.”

Antoine Griezmann’s double against Getafe on Tuesday night took him to 173 goals for Atletico Madrid, equalling the record held by club legend Luis Aragones.

The 32-year-old Frenchman’s own path to legendary status at Atletico has been a winding one.

Griezmann’s goals have come in 364 games for Atletico in two spells — between 2014 and 2019, when he left for Barcelona, and since 2021, when he returned from his two-year stay in Catalonia.

Some Atleti fans would whistle him when he played for Barca against their club, but the Frenchman’s prolific scoring and all-round performances have won everyone back, even impressing the son of the man he has just matched as the club’s leading goalscorer.

“Maybe some of us were a bit angry with him, there were things that we lifelong Atletico fans did not like,” says Aragones’ son, Luis Aragones Junior. “But he has managed to turn everything around. Now we all recognise him as one of the best players in Atletico Madrid’s history.”

Griezmann was 23 when he joined Atletico from Real Sociedad in the summer of 2014 for €30million (£25.8m; $32.9m at current exchange rates). He walked into a dressing room full of big figures who had just won a La Liga title.

“The Antoine who arrived was a shy kid, a nice kid, very sensitive, who needed to feel supported and happy,” says Godin, who played for Atletico from 2010-2019. “We made a good connection, as we had a friend in common in (former Uruguay and Real Sociedad forward) Chory Castro. Antoine needs to feel happy off the pitch, to feel comfortable, important, and looked after. All this he found in this group at Atletico in 2014, and later.”

Things did not go smoothly at first. Griezmann took a while to adapt to Diego ‘El Cholo’ Simeone’s iron tactical demands, and the punishing regimen of fitness coach Oscar ‘El Profe’ Ortega. He scored in the opening Champions League group game of the season, but that was a defeat at Olympiacos. He did not then find the net in any of his first nine La Liga games for his new club, and found himself often on the bench.

“At the start, Antoine found it hard to get into the team,” Godin says. “Not for his quality, but because El Cholo was making demands on him, preparing him to be the player he is today.”

Griezmann pictured at his Atleti presentation in July 2014 (Evrim Aydin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Griezmann’s first La Liga goal for Atletico was fortunate, a deflected strike against Cordoba at the club’s old Estadio Vicente Calderon. The real turning point came at Athletic Bilbao in December, when he scored a flying header and two calmly finished breakaway goals in a 4-2 Atletico victory.

He barely looked back from there, finishing the season with 25 goals from 53 games in all competitions. Meanwhile, he was becoming a very different player — after featuring mostly as a winger for Real Sociedad, Simeone moved him into a central role involved in all facets of the team’s play.

“El Cholo saw he had the capacity and quality to be a more incisive player,” Godin says. “Antoine is a sponge, who likes to learn and improve. After just a few months, he adapted, started to score goals, start moves, help in defence, all over the pitch. He is now one of the most complete players in the world, a leader for Atletico and France.”

Into the 2015-16 season, Griezmann began to also score key goals in big games. He started and finished a move for the winner at Real Madrid in February’s La Liga derby. A neat header and confident penalty eliminated Barcelona from the Champions League at the Calderon, and there were clinical strikes in each of the semi-final legs against Bayern Munich. He ended the 2015-16 season with 32 goals in all competitions, but he missed a penalty in the Champions League final where Madrid claimed victory, after a shootout in which he did find the net.

That summer saw Griezmann linked heavily with Manchester United, and he admitted in a 2017 autobiography that he was a boyhood United fan who always wore No 7 as a tribute to his boyhood hero David Beckham. But he stayed at Atletico, and began the season by scoring the first goal at their new Wanda Metropolitano stadium, a first-time finish from eight yards in a 1-0 win over Malaga. That meant another connection to Aragones, who had scored the first Calderon goal in 1966.

Griezmann celebrates after scoring against Malaga in September 2017 (Burak Akbulut/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

“My father was not really one for personal records,” Aragones Jr says. “The most important thing is the team, football is a team sport. If you want to be an individual, go and play tennis or golf. But that does not mean that Griezmann is not now a leader, who plays for the team.”

Griezmann finished the 2016-17 season with 26 goals in all competitions, but there was disappointment as Atletico finished third in La Liga and again suffered a Champions League defeat against Real Madrid, this time in the semi-finals. The 2017-18 campaign did not begin well either, individually or collectively, as Atletico finished third in their Champions League group. But that opened up an opportunity in the Europa League, with Griezmann’s goals key to a run to the final, with Godin picking out especially the vital solo strike scored in the semi-final first leg at Arsenal.

“We were playing with a man less and suffering a lot,” Godin recalls. “When Arsenal scored, everything seemed dark, it was all on top of us. But Antoine’s goal gave us a huge boost, nobody expected it.

“He was alone against two or three defenders, but he got past them, his shot beat the keeper but hit the post, and he scored the rebound. I remember the celebrations with so many Atletico fans, down in a corner of the stadium. It was incredible, for how the game had gone, and the importance of the competition.”

Griezmann then scored twice in the 3-0 win over Marseille in the final, with the second assisted by Koke, one of 22 times the Atletico captain and the Frenchman have combined for a goal in 313 games together.

“With Antoine, I have always had a connection on and off the pitch,” Koke tells The Athletic. “He and I have different personalities, but there is a natural mutual understanding which we also put at the service of the team. With just one gesture, we know what we are both thinking.”

After 29 club goals for Atletico during 2017-18, Griezmann scored four more at that summer’s World Cup, including one in the final against Croatia as France won the trophy.

Griezmann was a key player for France in their 2018 World cup success (David Ramos – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

Atletico fans cheered that victory for Les Bleus, but with reservations amid uncertainty over whether Griezmann was set to join Barcelona. He decided to stay, and scored 21 goals in 47 games through 2018-19, but both team and player trailed off at the end of the campaign. The move finally happened in August 2019.

When Griezmann left for Barcelona for €120million in summer 2019, he was fifth on the club’s all-time scorers list with 133, just ahead of former team-mate Fernando Torres. But the manner of his departure to a direct rival hurt his legacy in the stands and dressing room of the Metropolitano.

When things did not work at the Camp Nou, Griezmann was very keen to return to Atletico, taking a pay cut and turning down more lucrative offers from elsewhere. Still, the return on loan was very awkward, and he scored just three La Liga goals in his first season back.

The awkwardness continued when 2022-23 began with Atletico’s hierarchy mandating he play no more than 30 minutes in games, pressuring Barca to reduce the fee required to re-sign him permanently.

Although a brace against Real Betis in October 2022 moved him above Paco Campos and Adrian Escudero to third in the all-time list, Griezmann was not really enjoying himself, and he scored just once in six Champions League group games as Atletico were eliminated.

Behind the scenes, Simeone was pushing hard for Atletico’s hierarchy to sort the situation, as he preferred Griezmann to the club’s record signing Joao Felix. When that was finally resolved in January 2023, with Joao Felix leaving for Chelsea on loan, the Frenchman took full hold of the team’s reins and his form and goals returned. He ended the campaign with 16 goals in 48 games, including a goal straight from a corner against Real Betis and another superb solo effort at San Mames. There were also 19 assists and more influence than ever on the team’s play.

“It was key that Griezmann left without breaking his strong relationship with Simeone,” former Atletico defender Roberto Solozabal tells The Athletic. “Simeone understood he wanted another experience and accepted that. Now we are seeing this second great stage because the relationship between coach and player remains strong.

“If Griezmann had never come to Atletico, he would have been a great player, but without Simeone, maybe he would not have evolved so much in how he plays.”

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Many talented forwards have come and gone at Atletico under Simeone, including Radamel Falcao, David Villa, Mario Mandzukic, Alvaro Morata, Luis Suarez and Matheus Cunha. But none could match Griezmann’s longevity in the team, or offered the all-round game to go with the regular goalscoring contribution.

“For us, it is fundamental that even the top scorer works for the team, as solidarity is one of our key values,” Koke says. “To see a player with his quality making that effort for the good of the collective is an example for everyone.”

Griezmann’s start to the season made it inevitable that he would reach Aragones’ record sooner or later. Each goal in recent months has been particularly cheered by the club’s fans, including the neatly guided header in a 3-1 victory over Real Madrid at the Metropolitano, and a nerveless last-minute penalty winner in the 2-1 against his former club Real Sociedad.

A close-range poacher’s effort beat Villarreal in early November and moved him to second on the all-time scorer’s list along with Adrian Escudero, who notched his 169 goals in 330 games between 1945 and 1958.

Under Simeone, everyone at Atletico is instructed to just think ‘game by game’, but the record has been on many minds as it came closer, including Griezmann himself.

“Although the record is not something that obsesses Antoine, it makes him very happy and excited,” Koke says. “It is an incredible achievement and now he can keep making history with Atletico Madrid.”

Griezmann celebrates scoring against Lazio in December (Manuel Reino/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)

The celebrations for Griezmann’s second goal at home to Getafe on Tuesday — he sprinted over to Simeone and his team-mates mobbed him — were mirrored among the wider Atletico family, including Diego Forlan, whose 96 goals in 198 games from 2007 to 2011 put him 14th on their all-time scorers list.

“Griezmann becoming joint-top goalscorer of a big club like Atletico is huge,” Forlan tells The Athletic. “So many great players have played there over the years. So it is really amazing. He has been scoring a lot of goals, not just the quantity, but the quality of the goals (stands out).”

Another cheering the achievement is Adelardo Rodriguez, a team-mate of Aragones back in the 1960s and 1970s, and Atletico’s record appearance maker until Koke passed his total of 553 in September 2022.

“It’s easier to set records today, as there are twice as many games, and five subs for each team,” Adelardo, 84, tells The Athletic. “In the first stage at Atleti, Griezmann played well, but in the second it is phenomenal what he is doing, such a great career.”

Five Griezmann goals in six Champions League group games this autumn helped Atletico top their group, and set up a last-16 tie against Inter Milan in February and March. Eleven goals in 17 in La Liga have also kept Simeone’s team in the title race coming to the midway point. This has raised hopes that Griezmann could soon finally get a league winner’s medal with Atletico to go with his individual achievement.

Whatever happens over the remainder of his Atletico career, Griezmann’s place in the club’s history is ensured, says former captain Antonio Lopez, who played 248 games for the club in the 2000s.

“Unfortunately Atletico cannot win a league or a cup every season, and their fans have suffered a lot over the years,” he says. “But the supporters have always been with players who give everything on the pitch, and Griezmann does that.

“I don’t know if Atletico fans value that more than his goals, as his goals have been so important, and have been needed so badly. We are talking about such an important person in Atletico Madrid’s history.”

(Top photo: Jose Breton/NurPhoto/Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)