Antoine Griezmann named French Player of the Year 2016

Antoine Griezmann has been named French Football of the Year 2016. The Atletico Madrid striker finished third in voting for the Ballon d’Or, behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi recently and might have won it had he won either of the two finals he fired his teams to during the year.

Griezmann is currently in the middle of his worst run of form at Atletico Madrid with no goals in nine games and over 600 minutes, but he was sensational for Atletico last season as they got to the Champions League final as underdogs beating Barcelona and Bayern Munch on the way. He also fired France to the Euro 2016 final and finished the competition as the top scorer but in both the Champions League final and the Euro 2016 final, he was beaten by Cristiano Ronaldo-led teams in Real Madrid and Portugal.

At 25 years of age, Griezmann is seen as the successor to Messi and Ronaldo as a perennial Ballon d’Or candidate. He takes over from Blaise Matiudi, who won it last year after an excellent season with Paris Saint-Germain.