Griezmann is France’s number one Olympic supporter

PARIS: The host nation are having a good Paris Olympics so far -- and no-one is cheering them on more enthusiastically and more publicly than France and Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann.

Griezmann, who has an eye-catching 41.1 million followers on Instagram, 8.7 million on X, formerly Twitter, and another 1.4 million on TikTok, posted one video showing him roaring on French swim sensation Leon Marchand at the Olympic pool.

In another post he is pictured in the regal surroundings of the Chateau de Versailles after watching the equestrian events. Griezmann, 33, keeps his followers fully informed of each new French medal with excited posts like: “ALERT DOUBLE MEDAL”, as he did when French fencers Manon Apithy-Brunet and Sara Balzer took gold and silver.

French President Emmanuel Macron even joked that anyone who wanted to keep track of France’s Olympic medal haul should just turn to Griezmann. “The app is called Antoine Griezmann,” Macron posted, with a link to the footballer’s X account.

At one point, it was rumoured Griezmann would pair up with Kylian Mbappe as two of the overage players in France’s men’s Olympic football squad, but neither of them are involved. Griezmann and Mbappe played for France in Euro 2024, in which they were beaten by eventual winners Spain in the semi-finals.

Griezmann’s social media presence has not always worked in his favour -- in 2017 he was forced to apologise after he posted a picture of himself ‘blacked up’ as a Harlem Globetrotters basketball player.