In an interview with UEFA, the 2018 World Cup champion discusses his last dream before leaving Atletico Madrid at the end of the season.
Qualifying for the Champions League semi-finals with Atletico Madrid, French forward Antoine Griezmann revealed in an interview with UEFA on Monday that he dreamt of winning the Champions League this season for the first time, closing the wound of his lost final in 2016.
The 2018 world champion, who will leave Atletico this summer to join Orlando in the United States, reflected on this painful episode from ten years ago when the Colchoneros lost their second Champions League final in three years to Real Madrid, after Griezmann missed a penalty off the crossbar. “It’s not something I think about every day, but whenever we talk about the Champions League with friends or teammates, that moment from 2016 resurfaces, the penalty,” Griezmann explained in the interview.
“The only way to truly heal”
Finally winning the Champions League with his beloved club, at 35 years old, before heading to the United States, “would allow healing a very deep wound,” he said. According to him, it would be “the only way to truly heal” this disillusionment, followed by another lost final at Euro 2016 with the French national team. The French forward, voted the best player in the Spanish league this season, had led Atletico to the Champions League final with seven goals in thirteen matches, including a brace against Barcelona in the quarter-finals and the qualifying goal against Bayern in the semi-finals.
He finished third in the Ballon d’Or ranking, won by Cristiano Ronaldo, who won the Champions League and Euro.
