{"id":570961,"date":"2026-04-08T02:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T02:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/570961\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T02:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T02:45:08","slug":"simeone-salutes-griezmann-in-emotional-presser-before-atleti-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/570961\/","title":{"rendered":"Simeone salutes Griezmann in emotional presser before Atleti exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

An emotional Atl\u00e9tico Madrid<\/a> manager Diego Simeone used the beginning of Tuesday’s news conference ahead of his team’s Champions League<\/a> clash against Barcelona<\/a> to express his gratitude and admiration for Antoine Griezmann<\/a>, who is playing his final matches with Atleti before joining Orlando City SC<\/a> at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Seated side-by-side with the French star, \u200b\u200bSimeone asked to say a few words before the start of the media session to pay tribute to Griezmann.<\/p>\n

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“I wanted to take this opportunity to speak, not just from the perspective of a coach, but also as the Atl\u00e9tico fan that I am,” began the Argentine coach, catching Griezmann completely off guard.<\/p>\n

“I want to thank you for your hard work and your humility. You are an admirable person in a society where young people need role models like you. Thank you for everything you have given us, are giving us, and will continue to give us.<\/p>\n

“Thank you for your commitment, for knowing how to distinguish between the friendship we share and the professional relationship between a coach and a player. I view you first as a player, and only then as a friend. We have eight league matches remaining, one Cup match, and — God willing — five more matches in the Champions League.<\/p>\n

Simeone then joked: “I encourage you to keep enjoying yourself. I care about you deeply. But if you don’t run tomorrow, you’re coming off!”<\/p>\n

Atl\u00e9tico Madrid coach Diego Simeone delivered a heartfelt, unprompted tribute to Antoine Griezmann during Tuesday’s press conference ahead of the Champions League quarterfinals.\u00a0Photo by Enric Fontcuberta\/EPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Visibly moved — and after receiving an affectionate gesture from Griezmann — Simeone listened with a smile as Griezmann said he was surprised by the manager’s words and promised to return the sentiment of gratitude when they next get together with their families.<\/p>\n

Later, Simeone was asked if Griezmann, who is Atl\u00e9tico Madrid’s all-time leading scorer with 211 goals across all competitions, is the best player he has ever coached.<\/p>\n

“I am grateful to have had such a difference-making footballer,” Simeone said. “He arrived playing out wide and went through a difficult three months trying to figure out where he fit in. I told him that I envisioned him playing in a more central position — one that required incredible mental energy. Since then, he has often finished the season as our top scorer. Yes, he is indeed one of the best players I’ve ever had.”<\/p>\n

Regarding his future in the MLS<\/a>, Griezmann said he is currently focused on facing his former club, Barcelona, rather than thinking about what he expects once he moves to Orlando at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been working and looking for what ‘Cholo’ [Simeone] needed from me,” Griezmann said. “Right now, it’s not the right time to talk about Orlando and what I will do over there.<\/p>\n

“Tomorrow, we play the quarterfinals, and it’s something incredible. Lots of high-level football. I have a clear head to face it, and I want to help him as much as I can.”<\/p>\n

ESPN’s Lluis Bou contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An emotional Atl\u00e9tico Madrid manager Diego Simeone used the beginning of Tuesday’s news conference ahead of his team’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-570961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}