French players irritated with 'diva' Antoine Griezmann

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Bengaluru, June 19: French national team manager Didier Deschamps is ready to clip the wings of superstar striker Antoine Griezmann after a number of the senior French players have reportedly become increasingly irritated by the forward’s diva-like behaviour in recent weeks.

And, the manager is also reportedly determined not to allow the Atletico Madrid star to get too big for his boots and cause friction in the camp.

Griezmann was fuming when he was substituted with the score at 1-1 during Saturday’s World Cup opening game against Australia.

Yet even though the player was awarded the Man of the Match award by FIFA after opening the scoring from the penalty spot, Deschamps was not so impressed.

“Antoine is our attacking leader and he will remain so, but he must do more and he is aware of that,” Deschamps has warned.

"Players are never happy when they are taken off but he was short of his best and the players who came on instead of him did a good job.”

Full-back Lucas Hernandez revealed: “Antoine was angry when he was replaced because he’s a very ambitious player who wants to be involved all the time.

“But he was happy again after the match and maybe that was because Fifa named him Man of the Match. That seems to have helped him smile again.”

The 27-year-old Griezmann had already reportedly irked some players in the build-up to the Australia game by ensuring all the attention remained on him rather than the team.

The day after the French arrived in Russia, Griezmann insisted he would not be discussing his club situation following months of speculation linking him with a £100million move to Barcelona.

Yet just two days later he released an indulgent film titled 'The Decision’ in which he eventually revealed that he would be remaining with Atletico Madrid.

And the fact that the film had been shot before the French even flew to the World Cup did not impress many who believed he should have been focusing on the World Cup.

Now he has risked causing further irritation by signing his new five-year Atletico contract in the French camp in Istra on the outskirts of Moscow.

The deal was announced at the time same time as French team-mate Thomas Lemar concluded his £62million move from Monaco to Atletico on Monday (June 18).