Round 29 of La Liga had a little something for everyone. It saw the largest comeback in a league game for 21 years, while a historic club inched ever closer to the abyss. It is “as you were” in the race for fifth place as Spain zeroes in on an additional Champions League spot, while at the top of the table, Barcelona defeated Rayo by a solitary goal to maintain its four-point edge over Real Madrid – Los Blancos defeated Atletico in one of the worst-officiated league derbies I have ever watched.
It wasn’t long after Jose Luis Munuera Montero blew for full-time on 95:49 (despite nominally adding six minutes of stoppage time at the Bernabeu, you simply have to laugh) when Marca reported an exclusive: Atletico star Antoine Griezmann was on his way to the United States, where he was going to sign a two-year contract with Orlando City SC.
That report has since been corroborated in many outlets, and pending an official announcement from the club, Griezmann – who turned 35 on Saturday – will leave Atletico in June after the European season ends.
Griezmann’s departure in June for Major League Soccer, where he has long insisted that he wanted to play, will bring down the curtain on a legendary career in Spanish football that has gone somewhat underappreciated and overlooked. The Frenchman’s 556 appearances in La Liga rank fourth all-time; his 204 goals rank 11th in the competition’s history, while his 98 assists rank seventh. By any metric, he’s a legend of the league.
But for his brilliance at Atletico, Real Sociedad and sometimes at Barcelona, he has just a single Copa del Rey in domestic silverware to show for being one of the great players of his generation. That all could change on the 18th of April, when Griezmann and Atleti meet Real Sociedad in the Copa del Rey final on the eve of Feria week in Sevilla. And though Atleti are unfancied to win the Champions League, their quarterfinal tie against Barca promises to be goal-filled. Griezmann helping his beloved Rojiblancos to a first semi-final in nine years can’t be ruled out.
What Griezmann and Atletico have meant to one another cannot be summarised in a sentence or two, not even a paragraph or four. I’ll try nonetheless.
https://twittter.com/atletiuniverse/status/2035870354904887624?s=20
For Atleti, Griezmann helped to usher the club into the modern age; his flair and stardom brought heaps of new fans to the team, just as they moved to the glittering Metropolitano from the cherished but ageing Vicente Calderon. Habitually existing in the shadow of Real Madrid, its Bernabeu stadium, its 15 Champions Leagues (as Los Blancos’ fans will remind you) in the posh Chamartin district, Atleti have made a home in middle-class San Blas-Canillejas since moving there in 2017. The club’s recent change of ownership and ambitious Ciudad del Deporte plans can be attributed to an international profile that has grown under Diego Simeone – and during Griezmann’s two stints playing under him.
For Griezmann, Atleti has been his springboard to global recognition and superstardom. He twice finished on the Ballon d’Or podium, in 2016 and in 2018, in the red and white stripes; Atleti reached European finals in both seasons, controversially losing the Champions League in 2016 but thrashing Marseille to win the Europa League two years later. Griezmann then won the World Cup with France and publicly turned down Barcelona – though negotiations for him to join continued secretly into the next year.
That revelation turned the Atletico fanbase fiercely against Griezmann, who didn’t quite find the trophies he sought when he moved to Barcelona for €120m in 2019. Shunted to the wing in a loaded attack with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, Griezmann was fiercely whistled when Barcelona rocked up to the Metropolitano that December; after 102 appearances and 35 goals in Catalonia, in August 2021 he made a shock deadline-day return on loan to Simeone and Atleti.
The club and the head coach warmly welcomed him back, but it was another year-plus before Griezmann won back the fanbase. Some still have not forgiven him for leaving in the first place, and they never will – even though he has since become the club’s greatest goalscorer, with 211 strikes to his name across all competitions.
The 2025/26 version of Griezmann has steadily become one of my favorites to watch. No longer the 25-30 goal per year forward, Griezmann has performed another career transformation as a floating number 8 who uses his intelligence, technique and ageless class to key transitions and create shots. After a period as a substitute in the season’s opening months, Griezmann has returned to Simeone’s gala XI and has rediscovered his scoring touch; his five goals in the Copa del Rey are the most in the team, and Atleti don’t reach that final next month without him.
Griezmann is not a player Atleti can replace. I know this because the club has tried to do it before. Joao Felix is one of the biggest flops in club history. Alex Baena hasn’t lived up to the billing either, though injuries prevented him from playing regularly until January.
No, Griezmann is inimitable: a chameleonic forward whose brain and work rate matched his attacking talent and natural flair. Simeone has always described Griezmann in glowing terms as that rare player who bought into his out-of-possession ideology while standing out as the team’s star attacker. It made him an idol.
Neither Atleti nor LaLiga will see his like again anytime soon, if ever.
