The announcement of Antoine Griezmann’s international retirement did not fail to take Daniel Riolo by surprise, who questioned the reasons for this sudden announcement.
Antoine Griezmann and the Blues, it’s over. After more than a decade of very good and loyal service, the Atletico Madrid star has decided to put an end to his history with the France team. An announcement made Monday morning which had the effect of a bomb as nothing suggested such an outcome. Enough to ask questions.
“The first thing I thought was why now, said Daniel Riolo at the microphone of RMC. I find the timing super weird. He was in the group for the first two matches of the France team for the 2024-2025 season. I had to tell myself that something had gone wrong, that something had been taken the wrong way and that he was leaving a little angry. I was quite sad. »
For the RMC polemicist, the reason for this departure is essentially due to his relationship with Didier Deschamps, which fell apart during the last Euro. “We saw that Deschamps was no longer able to make him play, he was not in the same football as the guys around him. He was a little out of phase in this France team. Maybe it’s not the right moment, it’s a shocking, surprising moment, but I have the impression that it’s not a bad thing for him.”he continued, before returning to the episode of the armband, badly experienced by Antoine Griezmann.
Antoine Griezmann did not digest Didier Deschamps’ choices
And for Daniel Riolo, Didier Deschamps’ choice to entrust the captain’s armband to Kylian Mbappé rather than Antoine Griezmann after the retirement of Hugo Lloris at the start of 2023 had serious consequences. “The fact of not having given him the armband, I assessed that situation very badly. I thought it was anecdotal, that the guy was so devoted to the French team that he could get past this emotional shock because it turns out that it is, he explained. I understand that it could have affected him so much, I’m not saying that’s it, but it’s one of the elements. He carried it around like a wound that didn’t heal.”
“That’s perhaps the starting point and then there is the Euro, the fact that he is no longer at the center of the game when he was the only one who was capable of being at the center of the game. game,
he added again about Antoine Griezmann. That we pushed him around and wanted to play differently when the only technically valid player in this team is him. In each match, he took a blow which was ‘I no longer have confidence in you, it’s the end for you’. »
