Paul Roger, Media365: Published on Thursday, July 4, 2024 at 2:59 p.m.
Antoine Griezmann will return to Portugal, his family's homeland, with the Blues on Friday for the European Championship quarter-finals.
If the quarter-final of the European Championship between France and Portugal, scheduled for Friday evening (9 p.m.), will be special for Kylian Mbappé, who will once again find his idol Cristiano Ronaldo, it is the same for Antoine Griezmann. Not only because he is not guaranteed to start, after a more than average performance against Belgium, in a hybrid position of right-back that no longer really suits him. Because he is of Lusitanian origin through his mother, Isabel Lopes, whose father left Portugal in 1956 to escape the Salazar dictatorship and settled in Burgundy, and was also a professional footballer, at the club Paços before Ferreira.
“A special match in the family”
“It's a special match in the family, some will wear the Portugal shirt, others the French shirt,” explained Griezy in 2021, before the final group game at the Euros. Seleção (2-2) Whoever loses, loses, it's always a bit special against Portugal, my mother will make the trip and will be in the stands. There's always a strong connection, even on the paternal side.
“I played myself and then I coached the Portuguese club Macon, which my father-in-law helped create in the 1970s. My brothers-in-law, José and Manu, coached there and were teachers. Our best friends are still Portuguese. We went there on holiday with Antoine, we like the mentality,” Alain Griezmann told L’Equipe. And that’s even if his son doesn’t speak the language and understands it very little, unlike Spanish, which he has spent his entire career on the other side of the Pyrenees.
