Out of sight near the heart.
Major players in England and Spain, Paul Pogba (28 years old) and Antoine Griezmann (30 years old) take advantage of the meetings in the France team to meet again, and cultivate a strong friendship that they have maintained for seven years.
Their first meeting was in March 2014, a day of first selection for Griezmann with the Blues.
“I immediately liked
Piochi
(the nickname given to Pogba by Griezmann)
, because he was one of the only ones to come to me in training to see if it was going, remembers the striker of Blues and FC Barcelona, Sunday in a cross interview between the two players for Téléfoot.
Since I'm a fairly shy person at first, but who enjoys the relationship with his teammates, it worked straight out.
"
Pogba on Griezmann: "We have the same delusions. He's really a bon vivant. And in the field he's a boss, he does the job."
# telefoot @ FredCalenge @BarniaudSeb pic.twitter.com/wDVuIgk553
- Téléfoot (@ telefoot_TF1) March 28, 2021
"Grizou" and the "Pioche" know each other "by heart", they who met this week at Clairefontaine, the base camp of the France team, after four long months spent away from each other.
But the chemistry is always there when they see each other again, stay in their rooms, spend moments between international meetings.
Before facing Kazakhstan at Nursoultan this Sunday at 3 pm, Griezmann says: “We are often in Piochi's room, we talk, we play board games.
We both have fun, and it shows on the pitch ”.
“I can't be serious with him, it's hard!
"
If we often say that it is not necessary to be good friends to be well on a field, the two accomplices, indisputable in the France team and leaders of the group by their experience and their catchy personality, prove completely the opposite.
“He is happy, we have the same delirium, although he does not show it too much, describes Pogba about the fourth top scorer in the history of the Blues, tied with David Trezeguet (34 goals).
He is a dancer, he sings, he is a bon vivant.
I like people like that, because you have fun with them.
It's the same in the field, he's a boss, he does the job.
"
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If they claim to have never quarreled ("I can not be serious with him, it's hard!"), Two of the darlings of the coach especially hope to win "other titles for this jersey and this country" and "Leave a mark" in the history of their selection.
This could go through a World Cup-Euro double, like their glorious elders of 1998 and 2000.