Griezmann targets Messi and Ronaldo goal hauls

The French forward believes he is capable of scoring more than 25 goals this season as he works towards matching the output of the game's two most prolific players

 

Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann has revealed he wants to score the same number of goals as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi

The France international ended last season as Atleti's top goalscorer after finding the back of the net 22 times in La Liga, but his tally was dwarfed by the Real Madrid and Barcelona stars.

Griezmann ended the campaign as La Liga's fourth highest scorer, with Ronaldo (48), Messi (43) and Neymar (22) taking the top three positions in the charts, but he hopes to close the gap this term.

He told AS: "I do not know the number of goals that I will score, but I want to score more than 25 goals this season and beat last season's total. I'm working to reach Messi and Ronaldo."

The 24-year-old is currently on international duty with France and offered his backing to team-mate Karim Benzema, who was again linked with a move away from Madrid this summer.

"Benzema is often questioned, every year the same things are said," he added.

"The club bought [Gareth Bale] and [James Rodriguez] last summer but he is still there because he's always in the right position to score goals.