What it means to play for the national team? Ask the Little Prince

In Madrid, they call him the Little Prince. The French could call him the same nickname, because he is always there for them. Literally, because nothing can throw Antoine Griezmann out of rhythm, when it comes to the national team. The vice-champion of the world secured a place in the final tournament of the European Championship last night in Amsterdam, and you can be sure that the ace of Atletico Madrid will wear blue again next summer. There are no excuses for him, nothing gets in his way, he behaves like a modern soldier, he is always in formation when Didier Deschamps commands charge.

The duel with the Netherlands, in which Les Bleus won 2-1, is the best confirmation of what Griezmann means not only to France, but to world football. He has been playing for the national team for six years as if his life depended on it. And it's not like that. He could comfortably, given his status and career achievements, take a seat in the VIP box, ask for a break, put family and/or friends first, however, for him there is nothing more important. Even playing for giants like Barcelona and Atlético, where he was sometimes not in the forefront, for the national team he was always beneficial.

To find the last match when Griezmann was not on the field in a blue jersey, we would have to go back to June 13, 2017, when France defeated England 3-2 in a friendly match. Even then he was in the team, only he sat on the bench and did not enter. And then, for these six years and some, whether it was qualifiers, friendly matches, meetings at the final tournaments of the World Cup or the European Championship, or the Nations League, Griezmann played non-stop. That streak lasts 81 matches and there is no football player on the planet who has played so many times for his country.

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It is particularly interesting that Antoine Griezmann persists in the dressing room of France despite the tensions that accompany it. And it started back in the time when Karim Benzema blackmailed his teammate Mathieu Valbuena with explicit content, then when the current member of Al-Ittihad had a dispute with Deschamps, then when Hugo Lloris and Raphael Varane retired, while generations changed and younger came, when Kylian Mbappé's ego took over, which is not quite in proportion to his football skills and sometimes threatens to destroy what is created on the pitch. And all this in the era when the armband was taken off to be transferred to the hand of the star of Paris Saint-Germain. In an age when there are matches that can be classified as insignificant, when UEFA invented another competition, when national team football is losing the race with club football...

Someone else would give up and retire a long time ago, but Griezmann is an example of an athlete who resists modern trends and represents what playing for the national team used to be. At the same time, you never heard him disagree with his superiors, even when his role on the pitch changed as well. He's even moved away from the goal, and yet he's enjoying himself.