transfer to MLS side Orlando City<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe two held a joint press conference ahead of the first leg of Atletico\u2019s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Barcelona, but before fielding any questions on the match, Simeone expressed his admiration and gratitude for the 35-year-old France international.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore we answer anything, let me send Antoine a message from my position as Atletico coach but also as a fan,\u201d Simeone began by saying. \u201cIt\u2019s a pleasure to be sitting next to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cAntoine, I want to thank you for all your work and how humble you are. You are an admirable role model for all the kids in a society that needs people like you.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks for everything you gave and will still give us, because I will make you work hard. Thank you for your behaviour, knowing how to differentiate the relationship we have, being your manager but also your friend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are eight La Liga games left, one Copa del Rey game left and, if God wants to, five more games in the Champions League.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love you, as every single fan of this club does. But you know that if you don\u2019t run your socks off tomorrow, I\u2019ll take you out!\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if Griezmann was one of the best players he had coached, Simeone joked he \u201cdid not want others to get jealous\u201d but spoke of the Frenchman\u2019s capacity to convert from a winger into making an impact from a central role.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe struggled for three months to understand where he was and we started talking about him having the skillset to play inside. His mental capacities are outrageous, as well as his physicality. I think he is one of the best I\u2019ve had for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Griezmann was asked on his future, he replied: \u201cI don\u2019t want to speak about Orlando now, it\u2019s not the right time. We have a Champions League quarter-final tomorrow. I am only focused on this.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always think about the team and I think the best to do in that matter, to not cast any doubts, was to announce my intentions for the future. So now we can focus on La Liga, the Champions League and Copa del Rey. I hope to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his relationship with Simeone, Griezmann said: \u201cI owe Simeone a lot. He brought me to a level I could never imagine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is thanks to Real Sociedad first, but to Cholo too. He has taught me so many things, and he is a professional who I admire a lot. It is a pleasure to work for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The all-time leading scorer for Atletico with more than 200 goals, Griezmann would immediately become one of the most accomplished and capable forwards in MLS.<\/p>\n
Griezmann started his career at Real Sociedad, where he scored 52 goals across five seasons before joining Atletico in 2014. After 133 goals across five seasons, scoring a minimum of 20 goals per campaign, he spent two seasons at Barca before returning to Diego Simeone\u2019s side in 2021, initially on loan.<\/p>\n
Griezmann has never won a major league title with either club, but won the Europa League, Supercopa de Espana and European Super Cup with Atleti, alongside a Copa del Rey crown with Barca.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Diego Simeone sent a special message to Antoine Griezmann at his press conference on Tuesday, telling the outgoing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[47195,5009,5010,5692,139,4788,141,140],"class_list":{"0":"post-225705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-atletico-madrid","9":"tag-champions-league","10":"tag-la-liga","11":"tag-mls","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-city-sc","14":"tag-orlando-headlines","15":"tag-orlando-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225705","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=225705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}