Antoine Griezmann is rolling back the years at Atletico Madrid - but is this his last dance before making MLS his home?

When Griezmann returned to the Metropolitano for the first time after joining Barcelona in the summer of 2019, some irate fans left toy rats on the plaque previously placed in his honour outside of the stadium. Inside, meanwhile, a banner was unfurled on the Fondo Sur that read, "You wanted to have a name and you forgot to be a man." When the forward appeared for the warm-up, "Griezmann, die!" rang around the ground.

For Atleti supporters, it wasn't so much Griezmann leaving that upset them, it was the way that he did so. His future was supposed to have been resolved once and for all after 'The Decision', in which he claimed that the fans had been a massive factor in him snubbing Barcelona.

"When you're shown love at home, you don't go elsewhere," he told L'Equipe. And yet when Josep Maria Bartomeu came calling again the following summer, Griezmann turned his back on the Rojiblancos.

It wasn't in the least bit surprising, then, that Atleti's shunned supporters savoured the striker's subsequent struggles at Camp Nou. One of the main motivations behind his move was the desire to win a Liga title and yet he failed to get his hands on a first winners' medal in either of his two, ill-fated seasons with Barca.

In a delicious irony for Atletico fans, they pipped the Blaugrana to first place in 2020-21 thanks in no small part to Luis Suarez, who had been brutally binned by Bartomeu the year before. So, they were seriously unimpressed by their club's decision to re-sign one of the biggest flops in football history in 2021.

Griezmann, though, still had one massive fan at the Metropolitano in Diego Simeone, who welcomed the World Cup winner back with open arms.

Atleti had broken their transfer record to sign Joao Felix to replace Griezmann, but he wasn't fit to wear the No.7 shirt the Frenchman had left behind. Felix had neither the intelligence nor the industry required to play as a forward in Simeone's side.

Griezmann, by complete contrast, is as smart as he is selfless and a very rare commodity in modern football: a superstar willing to sacrifice himself for the team, which is why France coach Didier Deschamps always appreciated him just as much as Simeone.

Not everything went according to plan during Griezmann's first year back at the Metropolitano. For starters, there was the clause in his contract that stated if he played 45 minutes or more in 50 percent of Atleti's games during his two-year loan, the Rojiblancos would be forced to pay €40 million (£33m/$42m) to re-sign Griezmann on a permanent basis. This created a farcical situation in which he was repeatedly used as a second-half substitute as Atleti tried to reduce his game time.

However, a compromise agreement was eventually reached with Barca which enabled Atleti to buy Griezmann outright for €20m (£17m/$21m) in October 2022 and, unsurprisingly, the resolution resulted in an immediate upturn in Griezmann's form, for both club and country.

In a stunning demonstration of his versatility, which resulted in some long overdue love from the wider footballing world for Griezmann, he proved France's hybrid hero during their run to the final of the 2022 World Cup. And as soon as he returned to Atleti after the tournament in Qatar, he quickly set about proving himself the best player in La Liga.

In 2023, he was directly involved in 37 goals in all competitions - more than any other player plying their trade in Spain's top flight. In January 2024, he became Atletico's all-time leading scorer, surpassing the legendary Luis Aragones, who has a statue outside of the Metropolitano. Griezmann may well end up getting one of his own, as he's also just broken into the top 10 of the club's top appearance-makers.

Of course, that's a discussion for another day. Nobody at Atletico really wants to think about Griezmann's exit right now, not with the multi-talented attacker still performing so well.

Simeone has regularly stated that Griezmann, even at 33 years of age, remains Atletico's most-important player, pointing out, "Since he arrived at the club, Antoine has always been a match-winner for us." And that's no exaggeration either.

Only Raul, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have earned a Liga team more points with direct goal contributions. In that context, it's criminal that Griezmann has never really received the widespread acclaim that his talent so richly deserves, with the forward perhaps suffering more than most from the Ronaldo-Messi duopoly that dominated the global game for so long.

He also has to take some of the blame, of course, for choosing the worst possible time to join Barcelona, thus doing dreadful damage to not only his relationship with Atletico fans, but also his own reputation as a world-class player.

That's all ancient history now, of course. A heartfelt apology and admission that he fully deserved the criticism that came his way helped Griezmann regain "the affection of the fans" - as did all of the subsequent goals and assists, of course.

Simeone says that "we just need to ask him to continue in this vein" and, encouragingly for Atletico, there is little evidence to suggest that Griezmann's influence is on the wane. He hit 24 goals in all competitions last season - his highest tally since 2018 - and has already 15 to his name this term. Some of them have been quite sublime, too.

The man with a Midas-like touch scored an outrageous goal against Real Valladolid in November, and there was also a thumping late winner in a come-from-behind victory over Villarreal that had Simeone celebrating like a madman (as usual), while the deft chip that sealed a 2-0 win over Mallorca last weekend was pure class.

Of even greater importance to Simeone, though, is the effect that Griezmann has on those around him. He always defended the decision to bring him back from Barcelona by arguing that Griezmann, for all the mistakes he had made, was still a leader - "and we need leaders".

He's ultimately been proven correct in that regard, with Griezmann becoming "a great example" for his Atletico team-mates to follow with his work-rate on and off the field.

Indeed, it's telling that summer signing Julian Alvarez, who is now flourishing up front alongside Griezmann, is praying that the 33-year-old stays for at least one more season.

"We all know the class that Antoine has - he makes us all play better," the Argentine admitted recently. "Because of everything he’s given to this club, and to football in general, it's a pleasure to play with him."

From a purely neutral perspective, it would also be a pleasure to see 'The Little Prince' finally crowned a champion of Spain before he inevitably departs for America.