The former France captain and Atletico Madrid legend has always been obsessed with American sports. Moving to Orlando City is a bad fit, but the transfer isn’t about soccer.
Antoine Griezmann called it “The Decision.” if that sounds familiar to American basketball fans, that’s because it should. It was 2018, and the speculation around Griezmann’s Atletico Madrid future was intense. One of the best attacking midfielders in world soccer at the time – fresh off a Europa League win – he, in theory, had his pick of club.
Griezmann, ever the one for the dramatic, announced his next move in a 45-minute video that basically copied Lebron James’ famous ESPN program that announced he would be moving to Miami in 2010.
Lebron left. But Griezmann stayed. That he took 45 minutes to do it, after months of speculation, didn’t win him any new fans in Madrid. But it was an intentional thing. The naming of the show, the dramatic music, and the general vibe were a direct copy of the programming James offered eight years before.
The whole fiasco was emblematic of the way Griezmann idolizes American sports. At times, it seems that the Frenchman likes basketball more than he does soccer. He is, in fact, an American obsessive who has made no secret of his desire to move to MLS. And earlier this week, it was made official. Griezmann penned a deal with Orlando City that kicks in at the end of the season. The France legend will get the American move he has, in effect, manifested.
It’s not really all that sensible of a fit, in abstract. Orlando City are struggling. There’s not much of a structure to be found here. But that doesn’t really matter. This is a marriage not of sports but of celebrity. Griezmann could have ended up anywhere in MLS, really, and Orlando needed a boost. Even if there’s no obvious path to winning soccer games here, both sides stand to benefit.