Colin Sheridan: Could O’Connor pull a Griezmann on the 40?

The France playmaker reinvented himself during the World Cup.

PLUS CA CHANGE: France's Antoine Griezmann during the FIFA World Cup final at Lusail Stadium. Picture: Martin Rickett/PA Wire.

Mon, 09 Jan, 2023 - 06:52

Colin Sheridan is a writer and columnist. A former officer in the Irish Defence Forces he has extensive deployment experience as a peacekeeper with the United Nations, having lived and worked in the former Yugoslavia, West Africa, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine.

One of the enduring onfield stories of last month's World Cup was the evolution and reinvention of French ingenue Antoine Griezmann. For those of us who like our superstars quiet and humble, Griezmann in his mid-20s pomp was an easy figure to hate. Cocky as an Eastend geezer, handsome as a movie star, he scored goals for fun, first for Atletico, then for France and celebrated each by sticking out his thumb and little finger on both hands and shaking them like vibrating telephones, apparently in homage to Canadian rapper Drake and his song Hotline Bling.

To compound matters, he chose the medium of “lavish documentary” to end speculation and tell Atleti fans he would not be leaving Madrid for Barca, before skipping to the Nou Camp the following summer for a fee a little over £100m.