Antoine Griezmann^[5] was born on 21 March 1991^[6] in the commune of Mâcon in the department of Saône-et-Loire. His father, Alain Griezmann, a town councillor,^[7] has distant German ancestry. This German ancestor, named Emmerich, migrated to France from Münster in the early 19th century and was a basket maker.^[8][9] The family surname was originally spelled "Griesmann", before being changed to "Griezmann".^[10] His mother, Isabelle Lopes, a former hospital staff member supervising the cleaning team, is of Portuguese descent, and her father Amaro Lopes was a Portuguese footballer for Paços de Ferreira.^[7] Amaro Lopes moved from Portugal to France with his wife Carolina to work in construction in 1957, where Isabelle was born, and he died in 1992 when his grandson was an infant.^[7] As a child, Griezmann often spent his holidays in Paços de Ferreira, Portugal.^[7]

Griezmann began his career playing for hometown club UF Mâconnais.^[11] While there, he embarked on several trials with professional clubs, including Lyon, the club he supported as a child, to earn a spot in one of their youth academies, but was rejected because clubs questioned his small frame.^[11] In 2005, while on trial with Montpellier, Griezmann played in a friendly match against the youth academy of Paris Saint-Germain in Paris, and impressed several clubs, notably Spanish club Real Sociedad, whose scouts were attending the event. Following the match, the club's officials offered Griezmann a one-week trial in San Sebastián, which he accepted. He was later offered a second-week stay at the club. The club then contacted his parents and formally offered the player a youth contract. Griezmann's parents were initially reluctant to have their son move to Spain, but allowed him to make the move after positive reassurances.^[11][12]

When he first arrived at Real Sociedad, Griezmann lodged with the club's French scout while attending school across the border in Bayonne, training in the evenings at the club's headquartersin San Sebastián.^[11] It took him time to break into Real Sociedad's first team, but after four years in the club's youth system he made his debut, called up by Martín Lasarte for Real Sociedad's 2009–10pre-season campaign. In the pre-season, he scored five goals in four appearances and an injury to the team's regular left-winger led to Lasarte selecting him for the start of the season (unusually for a youth graduate, bypassing the reserve team altogether).^[11]

On 2 September 2009, Griezmann made his competitive debut in the team's Copa del Reymatch against Rayo Vallecano appearing as a substitute in the 77th minute of a 2–0 defeat.^[13]Four days later, he made his league debut appearing as a substitute against Real Murcia. On 27 September, he made his first professional start and also scored his first professional goal against Huesca in a 2–0 win.^[14] Two weeks later, Griezmann scored his second goal of the campaign in a 2–0 win over Salamanca.^[15] In November 2009, he scored goals in back-to-back matches against Hércules and Recreativo de Huelva.^[16] The goal against the latter club was the only goal of the match.^[17] Griezmann appeared consistently in the team for the rest of the season, scoring two more goals in wins over Cádiz and Numancia as Real Sociedad earned promotion to La Liga for the 2010–11 season as league winners.^[18][19][20] On 8 April 2010, Griezmann signed his first professional contract agreeing to a five-year deal with the club until 2015 with a release clause of €30 million.^[21] Prior to signing the contract, he drew considerable interest from Ligue 1 clubs Lyon, Saint-Étienneand Auxerre.^[22] As he developed with a Basque club, he was also potentially available to play for local rivals Athletic Bilbao, in spite of being born and growing up in the non-Basque areas of France.^[23][24][25]

Griezmann made his debut in La Liga on 29 August 2010, in the season's first match. In a post-game interview, he described the occasion as "fulfilling his childhood dream".^[26] In the team's first match after the September international break, Griezmann assisted on the equalising goal scored by Raúl Tamudo against Real Madrid. Madrid later won the match 2–1 following a goal from Cristiano Ronaldo.^[27] On 25 October, Griezmann scored his first goal in the league in a 3–0 victory over Deportivo La Coruña.^[28] He celebrated the goal by pretending to drive a truck that was parked near the field.^[29] A week later, Griezmann scored the opening goal in a 2–1 win over Málaga.^[30] In November 2010, Griezmann scored the only goal in the team's 2–1 loss to Hércules.^[31] In the team's second match of the new year, he netted the second goal in the team's 4–0 victory over Getafe.^[32] After going scoreless in the next nine matches, Griezmann returned to his scoring form in March, scoring the only goal for Sociedad in the team's 2–1 defeat to Racing Santander.^[33]

After sitting out the first league match of the 2011–12 campaign, in Griezmann's first competitive match of the season against the defending champions Barcelona two weeks later, he scored the equalising goal in a 2–2 draw.^[34]

In the final league game of the 2012–13 campaign, he scored the only goal of the game against Deportivo La Coruña, securing qualification for the UEFA Champions League for the first time since 2003–04 while also relegating Deportivo.^[35]

At the start of the following season, Griezmann scored on a volley against Lyon in his home nation of France which helped Real Sociedad qualify for the Champions League group stage (4–0 on aggregate).^[36] Another important goal was also on a volley, this time against Athletic Bilbao in a Basque derby league match at Anoeta Stadium in January 2014 which ended in a 2–0 victory for Real.^[37]

On 28 July 2014, Atlético Madrid reached an agreement with Real Sociedad for the transfer of Griezmann, for a fee believed to be close to his €30 million (£24 million) buy-out clause.^[38][39]He passed the medical examination the same day and signed a six-year contract on 29 July.^[40][41]He made his debut in the first leg of the 2014 Supercopa de España on 19 August, a 1–1 draw away to Real Madrid, replacing Saúl after 57 minutes.^[42] On 17 September, he scored his first goal for the club, in a Champions League group stage match against Olympiacos, in a game which Atlético eventually lost 3–2.^[43] Griezmann netted a brace, his first league goals for the club, in a 4–2 win over Córdoba on 1 November.^[44] On 21 December 2014, he scored his first La Liga hat-trick as Atlético won 4–1 at Athletic Bilbao, having trailed at half-time.^[45] He was the La Liga Player of the Month for January 2015 despite appearing in only three of Atlético's five matches.^[46]

On 7 April 2015, Griezmann scored the second in a 2–0 home victory over Real Sociedad. Out of respect to his formative club, the celebrations were minimal.^[47][48] Two weeks later he scored a brace against Elche in a 3–0 home win, bringing him to a total of 22 goals in the league season, overtaking Karim Benzema for the highest total by a French player in a single Spanish top-division campaign.^[49] He finished the season with 22 goals in 37 games, and was selected as the only Atlético player and one of three forward in the Team of the Year at the LFP Awards, alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.^[50]

On 22 August 2015, Griezmann scored the only goal as Atlético began the season with a home victory over promoted Las Palmas.^[51] He scored both of the goals on 15 September, as they won at Galatasaray in the Champions League group stage.^[52] A week later, he repeated the feat to defeat local neighbours Getafe and put Atlético on top of the league.^[53] On 18 October, in his return to Real Sociedad, Griezmann chipped goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli in the ninth minute of a 2–0 away win (as in the fixture six months earlier, he did not celebrate the goal).^[54]

On 27 February 2016, Griezmann scored the only goal as Atlético won away to Real Madrid.^[55] On 13 April, he scored both goals in a 2–0 quarter-final second leg win at the Vicente Calderón Stadium that knocked holders Barcelona out of the Champions League.^[56] On 3 May, he scored the decisive away goal against Bayern Munich in the semi-final second leg at the Allianz Arena to send Atlético to the final.^[57] Griezmann hit the crossbar with a penalty two minutes into the second half with his team trailing 1–0 against Real Madrid in the Champions League final at San Siroon 28 May. He scored in the penalty shootout after the match had ended 1–1 after extra time, but Atlético ultimately lost 5–3.^[58]

On 23 June 2016, Griezmann signed a new contract with Atlético, which would keep him at the club until 2021.^{[citation needed]} On 1 November 2016, Griezmann scored both of Atlético's goals (with his second in the 93rd minute) in their 2–1 home win against Rostov in a 2016–17 Champions League Group D match (in which he was voted the Player of the Match) to enable Atlético to progress to the round of 16 with two matches to spare. On 2 December 2016 Griezmann got third in the Ballon d'or ranking behind Lionel Messi and the winner Cristiano Ronaldo.^[59][60] On 22 April 2017, he scored the only goal of a win away to Espanyol, thus becoming the second Frenchman after Karim Benzema to score 100 La Liga goals, which he did in 247 games.^[61]

After another trophyless season, and amid speculation that he could leave Atlético for Manchester United after the conclusion of the 2016–17 season, he extended his contract at the club by one year in June 2017, after learning that Atlético was given a transfer ban and that it could not sign a replacement.^[62][63] His reported release price was also raised to €100 million (£87 million).^{[citation needed]}