5 of Antoine Griezmann's Best Moments of 2019

​Antoine Griezmann is ranked 35th in 90min's European Player of the Year series.

Last season, Antoine Griezmann was probably one of the ten best players in the world, never mind Europe. Maybe higher. 

This season, he's been...alright, like. He's been decent, but he's been gelling into a new forward line at a new club for the first time since 2014. 

Put those together, and you have his 2019. Simple. 

Just, Like, January Generally

Griezmann functions best with the freedom to do what he wants but, unlike a lot of players who are described like that (Mesut Özil, Lionel Messi, Eden Hazard) it doesn't mean that he just wants to float around the opposition's half and rev into the action when the ball comes to him. 

Almost uniquely among players as talented as the Frenchman, he relishes haring back in defence and winning the ball back. It's the kind of attitude you'd expect of someone who played under Diego Simeone for five years, and it's the thing that elevates Griezmann above the level of just 'another really good forward'. 

Anyway, he started the year by scoring the goal that won Atléti a point at Sevilla, the winner in a 1-0 victory over Levante, setting up one against Huesca and then scoring the opener in a 2-0 win at home to Champions League-chasing Getafe. Decent. 

Atleti 2-0 Celta (04/13/19)

The week after Barcelona had ended Atléti's slim title hopes at Camp Nou, Griezmann put in his last great performance for the club in a 2-0 win over Celta. 

The game started slowly for the home side, Jan Oblak making a brilliant double save to keep the scores level before Griezmann stepped up to a free kick just before half time and absolutely belted it into the top corner. Battered it. Every cow on earth felt the pain of a piece of leather being hit that hard. [note: look up if footballs are still made of leather]

The Frenchman turned provider for the second goal, popping up on the right – in his own half – to play a delicious through ball to release Alvaro Morata who actually scored a goal, believe it or not. 

La Decisión 2.0

If there's one thing Antoine Griezmann loves more than trying to be Uruguayan, it's the NBA. When he ripped off LeBron James' 'Decision' bit in 2018 with a full documentary, it rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way in Barcelona and Madrid alike. 

La Decisión 2.0 was...a little more low-key. It was Griezmann and a camera, him saying that he was leaving Atléti, and that was it. Of course, the fact that he said that before his release clause dropped to €100m from €200m ended up causing some problems for Barcelona, but...ho hum. All sorted. 

Barça 5-2 Betis (25/08/19)

The forward line at Barcelona is pretty hard to break into – they've got some good players there, it turns out. There were some questions coming into the season about where Griezmann would fit in; his normal floating central role putting him at odds with the spaces that Messi drifts into from the right. 

Barça losing his first game didn't help either, with the Frenchman failing to step up in Messi's absence. 

His second game started badly too, Real Betis new boy Nabil Fekir putting the Andalusians ahead at Camp Nou. Then Sergi Roberto set up Griezmann for the equaliser. Then he did it again to make it 2-1. 27 minutes later, Griezmann fed Arturo Vidal for the goal to make the scoreline 5-1. They call that 'an arrival'. 

Barça 3-0 Dortmund (27/11/19)

As good as Griezmann's coming out party against Betis was though, he still hadn't proved that he could do it with Messi. Indeed, in 14 games after that 5-2 win, the all-purpose forward had contributed just two goals and two assists – and one of those assists was sans Messi. 

He'd also failed to contribute a single goal or assist in four Champions League games. Coming into a crucial game against an exciting, raw Borussia Dortmund side, questions were being shouted by loudhailer. Coming out of that crucial game, the loudhailer had been switched off and the questioner was sheepishly trying to blend into a crowd. 

For the first time, all of the goals and assists in the match had been scored and assisted by one of Messi, Suarez and Griezmann. They scored one each. They could work together. A new era beckons. 

For more from Chris Deeley , follow him on Twitter at @ThatChris1209!