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Major League Soccer

14 August 2026

By Charles Boehm

Justin Ellis had been an admirer of Antoine Griezmann well before the two ever shared the pitch for Orlando City. The Lions’ teenage homegrown talent had looked up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup winner for his exploits with France and Atletico Madrid ever since childhood.

Yet Grizi somehow raised that sense of awe even further when, before his MLS debut, he told Ellis exactly how an important moment would play out in Orlando City’s 4-0 thrashing of the San Jose Earthquakes, even down to the pair performing his trademark ‘Hotline Bling’ goal celebration together.

“A couple days before the San Jose game,” Ellis told MLSsoccer.com on Thursday, “during training he was telling me, when you assist me against San Jose, we're going to do this celebration, and somehow he called it – and then I assisted him, and then we ended up doing his signature celebration. That was a pretty sick moment.

“It's like he literally predicted the future. It was insane.”

The attacking pair will be hoping to celebrate again this weekend when the Lions welcome Evander and an in-form FC Cincinnati in Matchday 20’s Walmart Saturday Showdown at Inter&Co Stadium (7:30 pm ET | Apple TV). And, as became clear after that away victory, Ellis was far from the only one in the squad well aware of Griezmann’s celebration routine.

The club’s social media team shared a dressing-room video in which senior players Robin Jansson and Maxime Crepeau copied his Hotline Bling and video game-inspired ‘Take the L’ dances while Grizi was presented with the match ball for his display, all to loud chants of his name, underlining just how positive the mood has become around Orlando of late.

The French forward’s star quality is obvious. But the striking thing is how quickly he blended in, almost from the moment he arrived last month, despite being, as Ellis put it, “for all of us on the team, probably the best player all of us have ever played with.”

It turns out Orlando’s most decorated player and most recognisable face is also the easiest to approach.

“One thing that I would really point out about Grizi specifically is just his humanness,” said right back Griffin Dorsey. “As much as he's a star, it's very easy to be in a room with Grizi and feel like he's just another human being. You're not staring at him, going, oh my gosh, that's Antoine Griezmann, the guy who was playing semifinals in [UEFA] Champions League less than six months ago, or a guy who's won a World Cup, or who played at the highest levels for as long as he has.

“He's a very humble guy, and that allows him to connect with his teammates super well.”

Or, in Ellis’ words: “He's so normal and down-to-earth, and he's such a nice person.”

In many ways, that has triggered a collective reset, what Crepeau described as “a renewal of energy in the group” during a chat with MLSsoccer.com at the 2026 MLS All-Star Game presented by Chime.

Griezmann’s immediate understanding with Ellis, one of the youngest members of the squad, has developed not only on the training pitch but also through their shared affection for EA Sports FC, the famous video game that many players still casually call ‘FIFA.’

Grizi has no hesitation in selecting his own digital avatar from his Atletico Madrid days, something that has created some surreal experiences for the younger players around him.

“He uses himself – because we use the old FIFA, so he uses Atletico Madrid,” Ellis said with a laugh. “I mean, it's pretty insane. Obviously he has a good card, because he's really good, but when you see him using himself, it’s kind of crazy. … He's literally sitting next to you, playing FIFA against you, and it's like, bro, what are you doing on the screen? It doesn't make sense! He's great.”

The two are among a group of roughly six Lions who use the game’s ‘Pro Clubs’ mode to play together on the same side, although away trips often also feature fiercely competitive one-on-one matches that sometimes force even those not involved to step in.

“They are nonstop yelling and screaming, honestly to a point where some of us have to be like, ‘hey, guys, quiet down,’” Dorsey revealed, adding that he personally bonded with Griezmann over yerba mate, the herbal drink introduced to both of them by South American teammates at Houston Dynamo FC and Atleti.

“We're in a hotel screaming bloody murder about a goal that was scored in FIFA; it's quite comical,