Antoine Griezmann reaches 500 LALIGA appearances

He is the second non-Spaniard to reach this figure, after Lionel Messi.

Antoine Griezmann has hit a magic number in LALIGA. With Sunday’s match against Real Betis, the French player reached 500 appearances in the Spanish leagues, counting his outings in both LALIGA EA SPORTS and LALIGA HYPERMOTION. That is a milestone that not many players in history have conquered and it means the Atlético de Madrid man is already a legend of the history books.

Antoine Griezmann has played these 500 games for three clubs and in two divisions. With Real Sociedad, he appeared in 180 matches, 39 of them in LALIGA HYPERMOTION in the 2009/10 season, when he was one of the most outstanding players as Martín Lasarte’s side won promotion, starring alongside Xabi Prieto and Claudio Bravo. After four successful seasons with the Basque club’s first team in LALIGA EA SPORTS, during which time he netted 46 goals, the forward then headed to Atlético de Madrid.

Under Diego Simeone, he has made 246 league outings over two spells, with his time at FC Barcelona briefly pausing his career with Los Rojiblancos. At the capital city club, he has managed to score 111 goals in LALIGA and become one of the fan favourites. The forward is even within reach of Luis Aragonés, as he could overtake him as the player with the most goals in the history of Atlético de Madrid.

Antoine Griezmann's time at FC Barcelona may not have brought him all the success he had hoped for, but it did allow him to add 74 more LALIGA EA SPORTS appearances that also count towards this great milestone of 500 LALIGA appearances. Under Ernesto Valverde, Quique Setién and Ronald Koeman, he scored a total of 22 goals before returning to Los Colchoneros.

His tally is all the more impressive when considering that only 36 other players in the history of LALIGA have managed to reach that figure, and the Frenchman is close to being the foreigner with the most appearances, as his 500 games means he is closing in on the 520 played by Lionel Messi. On the overall podium stand Rubén Castro, with 717 appearances, Nino, with 709, and Robert Fernández, with 674.

Antoine Griezmann and the objective of winning LALIGA EA SPORTS

Among his honours, Antoine Griezmann has one LALIGA HYPERMOTION championship to his name, the one won with Real Sociedad in the 2009-10 season. However, Antoine Griezmann has yet to win the main title, that of LALIGA EA SPORTS, which has eluded him in past seasons and with which he has a curious history. When he arrived at Atlético de Madrid in 2014, the capital city team had just become champions. The same thing happened to him in 2019, when he signed for FC Barcelona, who had just won the league title. Then, his return to Los Rojiblancos in 2021 also coincided with Atlético de Madrid’s recent victory in LALIGA EA SPORTS in the 2020-21 season.

As a 2018 World Cup winner with France, and boasting many club and national team trophies to his name, the player with 500 appearances in LALIGA has this one major objective left in his career in Spanish football. Antoine Griezmann was one of the best players in LALIGA EA SPORTS last season, and hopes to lead Atlético de Madrid to glory in 2023-24.