 |
| Goal.com |
UEFA Champions League Goal King Antoine Griezmann’s time on European club football’s grandest of stages may well be in its first act, but the 24-year-old is well on his way to graduating from a mere understudy to the star of the show.
One of the revelations of this season's UEFA Champions League, as a teenager they told him he would never make it. “They all said: ‘You're too small’,” Griezmann told El Pais in 2014.
But he had a dream and, even if that meant packing his bags and leaving home to make his fortune at the age of just 14, nothing was big enough to block his way. He was eventually spotted by Real Sociedad while playing in a youth tournament and set off for Spain.
After breaking through the youth ranks of the Basque outfit, he quickly established himself as the one of the club’s most exciting prospects since Xabi Alonso. He helped Real to a fourth-placed Liga finish with ten goals in 2012-13, and added another to secure his side’s safe progression to the knockout stage of the 2013-14 UEFA Champions League.
But that campaign would prove Griezmann’s first taste of UCL pathos as, despite a valiant effort to drag his supporting cast through their most trying of performances, Real exited the group stage with just a single point. They fell to 7th in the Spanish league, but nobody outside Spain’s big three of Atleti, Barcelona and Real Madrid bettered Griezmann’s return of 16 goals.
The Frenchman was destined for bigger things and became the second most expensive signing in Atleti’s history when he arrived as a €30 million replacement for Diego Costa the following season.
Griezmann had operated largely in wide positions throughout his career up to that point, but Diego Simeone saw a potential that others had missed and thrust him into a front two in the Spanish capital. Simeone “changed me completely,” he admits. After a period of adaptation, Griezmann found his form and hasn’t looked back. Olympiakos were once again the victims as he grabbed his first goal of the UCL group stage.
This season he has already hit four in just six outings to inspire Atleti into the knockout stage as group-winners. The 24-year-old is no longer a stagehand, shunned out wide and asked to cut in on a left foot every bit as delicate as it is powerful, he’s taken centre-stage and is thriving.
All 6 of his UCL goals for the club have arrived from inside the penalty area. Griezmann is now selecting his shots more carefully, too. While just half of his attempts were on target during his first UCL season with Real, he has worked the goalkeeper with 83.3% of his UCL shots this campaign.
He has already reached a personal-best UCL goal return and there will no doubt be many more to come. It’s been a long road, but one the diminutive Frenchman is now attacking with increasingly larger strides.
The scene is set, and Antoine Griezmann looks set to star for a long time before bringing down the curtain on his UEFA Champions League legacy.
0 Response to "UCL Goal Kings: Antoine Griezmann"