{"id":206356,"date":"2026-03-26T03:15:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T03:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/206356\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T03:15:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T03:15:45","slug":"antoine-griezmann-joins-orlando-city-what-fans-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/206356\/","title":{"rendered":"Antoine Griezmann joins Orlando City: What fans need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2018 FIFA World Cup<\/a> champion will formally join Orlando in July after he completes the 2025-26 season with Atl\u00e9tico.<\/p>\n

Here are 11 fast facts to know about Griezmann and his new club.<\/p>\n

Of Griezmann\u2019s numerous career accolades, arguably his biggest achievement was helping France win the 2018 FIFA World Cup title.<\/p>\n

The Frenchman was the tournament\u2019s Silver Boot (second-highest scorer) and Bronze Ball (third-best overall player) winner with 4g\/4a. He scored a penalty and helped set up two goals in Les Bleus\u2019 4-2 World Cup final win over Croatia that earned him Man of the Match honors.<\/p>\n

Among the greatest players in Atl\u00e9tico Madrid history, Griezmann is the club\u2019s all-time leading scorer with 211 goals and 97 assists in 488 matches.<\/p>\n

He’s won four titles with the Spanish club, including the 2017-18 UEFA Europa League.<\/p>\n

Griezmann also enjoys icon status with France, winning the aforementioned 2018 World Cup and reaching the 2022 title match, losing an epic final to Lionel Messi<\/a> and Argentina.<\/p>\n

His 137 caps are tied with ex-LAFC<\/a> striker Olivier Giroud for the third-most in Les Bleus history, while his 44 goals are fourth-most behind Red Bull New York<\/a> legend Thierry Henry.<\/p>\n

Griezmann\u2019s elite form during his peak years for club and country put him in contention for the sport\u2019s ultimate individual prize: the Ballon d\u2019Or.<\/p>\n

He placed third in the 2016 and 2018 editions of the annual award given out by French magazine France Football.<\/p>\n

Griezmann, who famously compared himself<\/a> to Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo following his 2018 World Cup triumph with France, eventually joined the former at FC Barcelona in July 2019.<\/p>\n

In total, he scored 35 goals in 102 appearances and won the 2020-21 Copa del Rey with Bar\u00e7a.<\/p>\n

Griezmann\u2019s stint with Barcelona between 2019-22 led to a fruitful partnership with Messi. Both legends shared the field 85 times, with Griezmann assisting in seven Messi goals, and Messi setting up five of the Frenchman\u2019s tallies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That Bar\u00e7a squad also featured fellow Inter Miami CF<\/a> superstar Luis Su\u00e1rez<\/a>, who later reunited with Griezmann at Atl\u00e9tico Madrid during the 2021-22 LaLiga season. In total, they played 48 matches together, with Su\u00e1rez assisting in two of Griezmann\u2019s goals, and the latter returning the favor on one occasion.<\/p>\n

Griezmann has a close friendship with MLS legend Carlos Vela, a former teammate at Real Sociedad who enjoyed an iconic stint at LAFC<\/a> before joining the club’s ownership group<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n

In fact, the 2019 Landon Donovan MLS MVP and 2022 MLS Cup-Supporters’ Shield double winner serves as a role model for Griezmann as he gets set to try his hand in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of what I want to do myself,\u201d Griezmann said<\/a> of Vela. \u201cHe was very important for the league, for his team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe won everything, and he\u2019s someone who I admired a lot playing in Los Angeles. And I want to reach his level as closely as possible.”<\/p>\n

Griezmann has influenced a whole generation of soccer fans around the world, some of whom have emerged as up-and-coming global stars in their own right.<\/p>\n

Among them is Obed Vargas, the Seattle Sounders FC<\/a> homegrown midfielder whose professed admiration<\/a> for Griezmann led to a heartwarming jersey exchange during the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Remarkably, they eventually became teammates following Vargas’ blockbuster transfer<\/a> to Atl\u00e9tico Madrid in February.<\/p>\n

In Griezmann, the Lions have pulled off arguably the biggest signing in club history.<\/p>\n

Fellow World Cup champion and 2007 Ballon d\u2019Or winner Kaka called Orlando City home from 2015-17, as did Portugal and Manchester United legend Nani from 2019-21.<\/p>\n

Griezmann joins an Orlando City side in flux after the club recently parted ways<\/a> with longtime head coach Oscar Pareja.<\/p>\n

The Colombian manager guided the club to six straight Audi MLS Cup Playoffs appearances before departing four games into the 2026 season. Assistant coach Mart\u00edn Perelman has taken over on an interim basis.<\/p>\n

Griezmann will occupy Orlando\u2019s third and final Designated Player slot, alongside fellow attackers Marco Pa\u0161ali\u0107<\/a> and Mart\u00edn Ojeda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pa\u0161ali\u0107 hopes to feature for Croatia at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, while Ojeda delivered a club-record 39 goal contributions (20g\/19a) in 42 games across all competitions last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2018 FIFA World Cup champion will formally join Orlando in July after he completes the 2025-26 season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[47194,38585,139,4788,141,140,4959],"class_list":["post-206356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-antoine-griezmann","tag-essentials","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-city-sc","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-sendtonews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}