{"id":347347,"date":"2026-07-21T14:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/347347\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T14:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:59:08","slug":"antoine-griezmann-set-to-make-orlando-city-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/347347\/","title":{"rendered":"Antoine Griezmann set to make Orlando City debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

The star French forward is set to make his official debut on Wednesday night when Orlando visit the\u00a0San Jose Earthquakes<\/a> in their first game back from the 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a> break (10:30 pm ET | Apple TV<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Grizi, it\u2019s unique,\u201d interim head coach Mart\u00edn Perelman told reporters ahead of the Lions\u2019 Matchday 17 visit to PayPal Park.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 The energy he brought to the locker room and to all of us \u2013 his magic, it\u2019s unique.\u00a0Everybody is enjoying it, me as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n New-look Lions<\/p>\n

Griezmann formally joins the Lions this summer after a legendary decade-plus career in Spain\u2019s LaLiga with Real Sociedad, FC Barcelona and Atl\u00e9tico Madrid. He is Atl\u00e9tico’s all-time leading scorer with 212 goals and will look to kick-start a revamped Orlando attack that’s also welcomed back<\/a>\u00a0striker Daryl Dike<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both signings reflect the club\u2019s ambition to not only climb into the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs mix, but compete for silverware.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Become a champion, score goals, give assists, make kids want to play soccer and become Orlando fans,” Griezmann said last week in New York as MLS hosted its The Next Chapter conference.<\/p>\n

“I came for all of that, and to put Orlando on top of the map of soccer in the United States.”<\/p>\n

\n Benchmark signing<\/p>\n

Griezmann’s ambition matches that of his new club, which has famously swung big during previous transfer markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Orlando signed Brazilian Kak\u00e1 \u2013 like Griezmann, a fellow FIFA World Cup winner \u2013 as their first Designated Player ahead of their inaugural 2015 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Portugal and Manchester United legend Nani also starred for the Lions from 2019-21.<\/p>\n

Griezmann now adds more star power to an Orlando squad highlighted by Argentine playmaker Mart\u00edn Ojeda<\/a>, the club’s all-time goal contributions leader (44g\/30a), and Marco Pa\u0161ali\u0107<\/a>, a 2025 MLS All-Star who represented Croatia at this summer’s World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very nervous about meeting my new teammates,” Griezmann said. “I\u2019ve spent the last two weeks having fun with them, training with them.”<\/p>\n

\n Uphill battle<\/p>\n

Even with the remarkable influx of talent over the summer \u2013 of which Griezmann gave a tantalizing preview by scoring in two recent club friendlies \u2013 Orlando will have their work cut out for them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Lions are four points shy of playoff positioning, but have a -21 goal differential and have conceded an MLS-worst 44 goals this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The club\u2019s struggles led to the departure of longtime head coach Oscar Pareja<\/a> in March, and his interim successor knows that a massive turnaround is needed in the second half of the year \u2013 beginning with Wednesday\u2019s trip to San Jose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a special opportunity that MLS provides us by having this [World Cup] break in the middle of the season,\u201d said Perelman. \u201c\u2026 So, I think it\u2019s important. Every game is a final for us, so this is the first one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we\u2019re going to try to win it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Griezmann: \u201cI\u2019m very excited about going to San Jose for our first game. They\u2019re a very strong team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s going to be a good test to see where we\u2019re at.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The star French forward is set to make his official debut on Wednesday night when Orlando visit the\u00a0San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[47194,12629,139,4786,141,140,4959,141845],"class_list":["post-347347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-antoine-griezmann","tag-match-previews","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-city","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-sendtonews","tag-sjvsorl-07-22-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347347","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=347347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}