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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
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Barcelona's Antoine Griezmann proudly shows off his 'Arsenal 2023' Football Manager wonderkids

What do footballers do in their spare time? Pretty much the same things as most football fans, it seems.

If you've never sunk countless hours (and days) into a Football Manager career, then chances are you know somebody who has - or, more likely, is keeping quiet about just how much time they've racked up on the game.

As in real life, Antoine Griezmann is one of the best forwards on the game - and the World Cup winner got his dream move to Barcelona this summer from Atletico Madrid, with the Spanish champions shelling out €120million (£110m) for his services.

With Lionel Messi set to miss Barcelona's first LaLiga game of the new season at Athletic Bilbao on Friday night, the France international obviously needs his downtime amid all the pressure.

Griezmann is an avid Football Manager fan and proudly posted a recent update of his latest save playing as Arsenal, tagging the Premier League club and showing his current squad in a parallel 2023.

The French forward has made big moves in the transfer market with Jadon Sancho on the left wing and Joao Felix - who Atletico signed to replace Griezmann - in attacking midfield.

Griezmann has added fellow Barca summer signing Frenkie De Jong to his Gunners XI with Bruno Fernandes in midfield, while Liverpool's Andy Robertson, Real Madrid's Raphael Varane and Juventus' Matthijs de Ligt feature in a stacked defeces.

Oh, and Phil Foden is also on the bench.

The makers of Football Manager were clearly delighted with Griezmann's tweet to his 6.4million followers, quote-tweeting him with the message:

And if you're wondering where Arsenal's current squad members are... well, they are too, with Alexandre Lacazette pondering the fate of his virtual self.

The Gunners forward asked his compatriot where he ended up, and Griezmann duly replied with a list of Lacazette's achievements.

Unfortunately for Lacazette, his Premier League and Champions League-winning career in north London was cut short by a £23.5m move to... Huddersfield.

Ouch.

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