With Messi gone, striker Griezmann keen to take up lead role at Barca as Catalans eye Spanish League title
Antoine Griezmann
As Barcelona continues adjusting to life without Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann gets his best chance yet to take a leading role at the Catalan club.
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Griezmann will be making his 101st appearance with Barcelona when the club visits Athletic Bilbao in the second round of the Spanish league on Saturday.
The French striker finally has the opportunity to take centre stage and become a protagonist in Messi’s absence.
“I hope I get to play another 100 games and carry on giving everything to make history with this club,” Griezmann, 30, said.
“I want to keep helping the team both on and off the pitch, in attack and defence, and enjoying being at Barca.”
Falling short of expectations
He had some key performances while Messi was still on the team but has never fully met the high expectations that came when he signed from Atletico Madrid for 120 million euros in 2019, a year after he was the man of the match in the World Cup final won by France.
Griezmann, who has 35 goals with Barcelona, used to play a secondary role even to Luis Suarez and youngsters such as Ousmane Dembele and Ansu Fati.
At times, he wasn’t even a regular starter and had few minutes off the bench.
Fresh competition
Now he has the competition of Barcelona’s biggest offseason signing, Dutch international Memphis Depay, but coach Ronald Koeman has already hinted they will not be fighting against each other for a starting spot.
Koeman said after the preseason that he liked the connection between Griezmann and Depay. Both played well in the team’s 4-2 opening victory against Real Sociedad, which marked the start of Barcelona’s first season without Messi after 17 years. The Argentina star joined PSG after Barcelona failed to give him a new contract because of its financial struggles.
Other forwards for Barcelona this season include Sergio Aguero and Martin Braithwaite, who scored twice against Sociedad.
“It was very important to get a win,” said Griezmann, who is 14 goals from equalling Thierry Henry as the club’s highest scoring Frenchman.
35
No. of goals striker Antoine Griezmann has scored for Barcelona
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