Atletico Madrid are on the attack with Antoine Griezmann up front

Casual observers of Spanish football may expect the league's best is Cristiano Ronaldo, but Atletico’s Antoine Griezmann is Spain’s hottest player, writes Andy Mitten.

Frenchman Antoine Griezmann, left, is starting to find his role in his first season with Atletico Madrid. John MacGougall / AFP

The Primera Liga’s player of the month for January will line up in Saturday night’s Madrid derby after scoring five goals in three games.

With his slicked back hair, the expensively purchased non-Spaniard can play on the wing or in a more central attacking role.

Casual observers of Spanish football may expect it to be Cristiano Ronaldo, but Atletico’s Antoine Griezmann is Spain’s hottest player.

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Signed from Real Sociedad for a €26.4 million (Dh110.2m) fee last July Griezmann, 23, arrived with expectations high after he had made his France debut in March last year and played in all five of his country’s World Cup finals matches in Brazil.

Griezmann and fellow forward Mario Mandzukic were Atletico’s biggest summer recruitments in a €100m splurge to replace Diego Costa, Felipe Luis, Thibaut Courtois and David Villa.

The champions have a history of selling their best players but replacing them with equally adept performers, yet Mandzukic and Griezmann took time to settle at the Calderon.

Coach Diego Simeone was patient with both and is being rewarded with top performances.

Griezmann was born near Lyon and watched his local side during their noughties success.

Heartbroken when Lyon rejected him, he wound up at Real Sociedad, who had spotted him in a youth tournament playing on trial for Montpellier at 14.

He moved to Spain, lodged with a coach and crossed the border each morning to attend a French school.

Like most of their first teamers from the past decade, he also rose through their ranks before making his first team debut at the age of 18 in the second division.

Griezmann became a key player as the Basques roared back to the Primera Liga and eventually into the Uefa Champions League in 2013/14.

To reach a group with Manchester United, Bayer Leverkusen and Shakhtar Donetsk, they had to eliminate Lyon and Griezmann was a star over both legs.

Champions League football meant Griezmann stayed a season longer than expected and he remained a hero for key goals – including a volley in last season’s Basque derby against Athletic Bilbao.

An injury to Franck Ribery meant he made his France debut in 2014 and he became a regular under Didier Deschamps and went to the World Cup in Brazil.

Fast and skilful, he scored in consecutive October friendlies against Armenia and Albania after coming off the bench in both.

After returning from South America in the summer, he moved to the Calderon and has featured in all 21 league games, starting 14 and coming on as sub in seven.

Having scored 20 goals in his final season in the Basque Country, the Frenchman was expected to contribute a healthy amount at Atletico but his first league goal did not come until his 10th league match at home to Cordoba.

He added a second 15 minutes later and his form in recent months has been as striking as his swept back dyed-blond hair with grade-zero back and sides.

On his first return to the Basque Country in December, he played as a central striker in a 4-3-3, scoring a hat-trick against old foes Athletic in a 4-1 triumph.

Simeone limited him to just five minutes when he returned to San Sebastian in January to face his old club where he played 202 games, a decision the coach perhaps regretted as Atletico lost for only the second time in the league.

Simeone alters his position between the left wing, second striker and central forward and Griezmann has been effective in all.

His manager confirmed on Friday that the 14-goal Griezmann and 18-goal leading scorer Mandzukic would play tonight over Fernando Torres against a Madrid side who hold a four-point lead at the top over Barcelona.

They would move 10 points clear of Atletico if they won tonight, a gap likely to be too wide for the champions to bridge.

Another win for Atletico to match September’s Bernabeu triumph and it would close to four.

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