Stats Show Why Antoine Griezmann Should be Considered One of France’s Best Ever

After the announcement that Antoine Griezmann has retired from international football, we look at the stats to show why he should be considered one of the best to ever play for France.

French star Antoine Griezmann announced his retirement from international football on Monday. The Atlético Madrid forward ends his international career at the age of 33, just over 10 years after his debut for Les Bleus on 5 March 2014 versus the Netherlands.

Griezmann finishes his international career with 137 caps for the French national team, which is behind only Hugo Lloris (145) and Lillian Thuram in the all-time most capped players ranking for the men’s team, while only Thuram (93) ended on the winning side more often than Griezmann (91).

Between 31 August 2017 and 21 November 2023, Griezmann appeared in every one of France’s 84 men’s international matches – an all-time record for the French national team – and 40 games longer than the next longest run of appearances set by Patrick Vieira (44 in row).

He scored 44 times overall for France, which places him third in the all-time French men’s top scorer charts, behind Olivier Giroud (57), Thierry Henry (51) and Kylian Mbappé (48).

He overtook legendary French star Michel Platini’s tally of 41 goals with his strike in the 8-0 win over Kazakhstan at Parc des Princes in November 2021. His final goal for France came over a year ago, in the 2-1 friendly defeat to Germany in Dortmund on 12 September; he went goalless in his final 14 appearances for Didier Deschamps’ side, despite playing 992 minutes across those internationals.

But at that stage, he had already had a hand in 74 goals in a France shirt, with 30 assists for his teammates in his 137 caps. Giroud was the most regular recipient of his assists (5), which comes as no surprise when the veteran French forward played alongside Griezmann for France on 106 occasions – 18 more games than any other player.

His record at major international tournaments was incredible, too. He has appeared more times at World Cup and European Championship finals (36) than any other French player, and his tally of 11 goals across those appearances is below only Platini (14), Mbappé (13), Just Fontaine (13) and Henry (12) for the French national team. Six of those goals came at Euro 2016, where he finished as top scorer at the tournament, with France finishing as runners-up on home soil to Portugal.

Griezmann would go on to win the 2018 World Cup, scoring four goals overall including a penalty in the final win over Croatia, and he played in the 2022 World Cup final against Argentina, which France eventually lost on penalties in Qatar.

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