“He needs that goal to rip the stopper off”, slip those who work with Griezmann (31 years old) day by day in the Cerro. It had been ten years since the Frenchman had lived through such a drought, twelve games in the League without scoring, 18 if the Champions are counted. The last time he celebrated one was in the Cup and it was January (day 6). In the League you have to go to November, 28. Six months ago. Antoine was always a streak player. His entire career between peaks and valleys, but not so accentuated, not with such deep and desert chasms.
On Sunday, in the derby, the Frenchman arrived with a new look. His very short hair, shaved. Throughout her life she has worn many different ones. Crest, long, colored. It comes from her mother, Isabelle, who also changes her hair often. But in this case it is something else. A want to change something. Like when he arrived at Atlético again and the first thing he did was cut his hair that he had begun to let himself grow three years earlier, in his last season as a rojiblanco before going to Barça, to be like Beckham, his idol when he was a child who grew up in Maçon dreaming of football.
“Touched self-esteem, self-control and self-confidence”
“It is a change to reset models”, analyzes for AS Andrés Paris, sports pedagogue. “And they come in handy, to anchor them.” A change that he shouts: “I’m looking to be Griezmann”. During the match Antoine was seen again, impeccable in sacrifice and waste, it’s standard, it’s non-negotiable, but again he crashed in the goal. He brushed it twice. He came in for Correa at the break and first sent (in 73′) a thread that almost caressed the top corner and a shot (75′) that went wide by millimeters.
“I was at the Metropolitano and his gestural language caught my attention”, Andres Paris explains. “Shoulders down, little guy, his classmates were looking for him to high-five him.” Gestures that Andrés, an expert in the formative part of emotions, was also shouted at, like the one with the hair: “That self-esteem, self-control and self-confidence have been affected”. “Griezmann lives from goals. It seems like a truism. But his job is to make them and, when a negative dynamic comes and they don’t come, all three are damaged. Unintentionally, you can think that you are a worse footballer, you dare less. Cholo’s confidence, yes, remains intact. “He will return to goal, I have no doubt”, declared before the derby. That damn goal that starts the stopper.