Antoine Griezmann is the most visible footballer in the country with the privilege of hosting the European championship. Visible in that he has a large ratio of billboard space, appears in most television advertising, both for products related to his sport and some not related at all.
He has a sister who works in public relations, and she has been expertly involved in raising the profile of Griezmann ahead of the tournament.
Much of France wanted a more visible Griezmann on the field on Day 1 of the competition.
An uncertain, tense start against Romania, when only a late Dmitri Payet goal turned a 1-1 draw into three points posed a number of questions about France's calibre, their credentials as potential finalists. Many of them swirled around the blonde whippet from Atletico Madrid.
What was his best role in the team? What formation made best use of his talents? Was he exhausted after a long season, 54 matches of it, at a hard-running Atletico? Was he traumatised because he failed to convert a penalty in the Uefa Champions League final, which Atletico went on to lose when it was decided via spot-kicks?
More from Euro 2016:
• Thomas Woods in Eden Hazard: Hazard is of Cristiano Ronaldo-level importance to Belgium
• Euro 2016 Daily Five: Eden Hazard warning, Germany's juggernaut, England the knockout failures
• Euro 2016 talking points: Slow starts hampering France, while Germany look the part of world champions
• Richard Jolly on France v Ireland: Deschamps's actions save France, yet frail defence will need more protection
Some of these anxieties were relieved on Sunday in Lyon, some 40 kilometres south of his native Macon. Griezmann's two goals pushed France in the last eight of their tournament, the minimum expected of them.
They were goals that restored faith that the team do have a footballer they can class at least in the immediate slipstream of the famous names who have been decisive in installing their countries in the quarter-finals so far: men like Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Eden Hazard.
Griezmann, 25, may not be as accomplished in the air, or as tall as Bale, but he now has two headed goals in the tournament. He may not cut in from the left wing with the enduring, trademark effectiveness of Hazard, but he relocated with great effect from a wide position to a central one in the 2-1 win over Ireland in Lyon. He may not have the high profile of Ronaldo, but his profile certainly did not lower on Sunday.
His nickname has a good airing, too.
“Grizou was coming inside a lot,” Payet said. “You have to be tough and assume your responsibilities,” Patrice Evra said. “And Grizou did just that.”
A tactical observation and a compliment to Griezmann’s leadership, both made using the affectionate, resonant sobriquet his teammates have started to adopt. He is Grizou in the way France’s star of the 1998 World Cup, Zinedine Zidane, was ‘Zizou’ to his pals.
Zidane, not best known for his prowess in the air, scored two headed goals in the tournament, both of them in the final, a 3-0 win over Brazil. Grizou is not yet a star of the Zizou scale, but he turned France’s fortunes against the Irish, and may well have dictated the way France operate from now on, how they plan for their next match, at the Stade de France on Sunday, against the winners of Monday night’s contest between England and Iceland.
Trailing at half-time against Ireland, Didier Deschamps, the France manager, made an important adaptation, replacing the holding midfielder N’Golo Kante with the winger Kingsley Coman, and shifting Griezmann from a role wide on the right of his 4-3-3 to a more central position, off the target man Olivier Giroud. Within 16 minutes Griezmann had scored twice, meeting a super cross from Bacary Sagna, and then latching onto Giroud’s knock-down to strike.
Giroud approved. “When you have two up front it creates more uncertainty among the opposition defenders,” the Arsenal centre-forward said.
Griezmann left a hint that he would welcome the same brief on Sunday. “I have played through the middle all year,” he said of his Atletico season, in which he scored 32 times across competitions, for a team not given to big, emphatic scorelines, “so I know what I am doing when I’m there.”
Which was saving France’s skin, it was suggested to him. “If there’s a saviour,” Grizou said. “It’s the whole team.”
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport
