Michel Platini
The only player to be named European Footballer of the Year on three consecutive occasions, Platini is also a twice-winner of the World Player of the Year award, and before the start of France ’98, was named, along with the above-mentioned trio, in the Mastercard World Team of the Century.
You imagine such giants of the game the world plays to be just that – giants. You know the story – ten feet tall, indestructible, football supermen … the stuff of legends!!
Reality sends these mental images sailing way over the crossbar, of course. Well, the ten feet tall and indestructible images, at least. He remains very much a legendary footballing superman, though, twelve years on from donning the number ten jersey for the very last time.
Brescia were Juventus‘ opponents in the final game for club or country in which Platini played. It goes without saying that he signed off with a goal. But why did he hang up his boots in 1987, at the relatively young age of 32?
“I had no more fuel left!”, he explains. “I had been a professional for fifteen seasons, during one of which I had been injured. I loved to score goals, but with age came the reality that what I could do with great frequency as a younger man would not always be possible, given that I was now playing alongside and against younger players”.
“Thus it became my ambition to retire while I was still at my peak, and it’s something about which I have no regrets”.
This is understandable, as Platini‘s playing career was laden with highlights. The jewel in the crown for footballing connoiseurs, of course, was the 1984 European Championship finals.
Platini has often been described as “the lead violin in a sophisticated string quartet”, and it was in this tournament that he was seen at his breathtaking best, aided and abetted by his midfield companions Alain Giresse, Jean Tigana and Luiz Fernandez.
The elegant orchestrator scored in every match of the Finals – nine goals in all – as France stormed to their first honour on the world stage. One of his finest performances for ‘Les Bleus‘ came in the group match against Yugoslavia, who led 1-0 at half-time. A stunning seventeen-minute hat-trick early in the second half from the charismatic French captain turned the game on its head, France going on to win 3-2.
There were any number of other highlights enjoyed by one of the best passers of a football ever to grace the game, so many, in fact, that he finds it difficult to single one out. “I had a fantastic career, playing for Nancy-Lorraine, St. Etienne, Juventus, the Rest of the World, and, of course, France“.
“What helped make it so fantastic was that, coming from the little village of Joeuf in north-east France, I, nor my parents, had any idea that football was a professional game. This was still the case when I signed for Nancy-Lorraine. Because of that alone, I consider myself very lucky, and what I have subsequently achieved is, to me, a huge bonus”.
“Whenever I was on the pitch, I always tried to win. Some games you win, some you lose, and some you draw. I was lucky in this regard, in that I was part of a winning team on many occasions. Consequently, I won just about everything I set out to win, everything bar the World Cup, of course. But even now, I don’t regret that, because I was part of a team which twice reached the semi-finals”.
Platini‘s brown eyes are alive with excitement, as he recalls some of the great moments and matches in which he has taken part. Matches like the epic World Cup semi-final in Seville in 1982, between France and West Germany, a match which finished 3-3 after extra-time, the Germans winning 5-4 on penalties, this after France had led 3-1 with twenty minutes remaining.
A famous picture taken during this game depicts Platini with his hands raised skywards. He is not celebrating a goal, however, but making an impassioned plea for justice to the match referee, Charles Coerver, after an incident on the hour which has gone down in World Cup folklore.
“That was my most beautiful game”, the French master recalls. “What happened in those two hours encapsulated all the sentiments of life itself. Regarding the incident itself, had the referee seen Schumacher hurtling out of his goal and colliding with Patrick Battiston as he bore down on goal, the red card would have come out, and we would have gone on to the World Cup Final, and maybe even won the trophy”.
“But he didn’t see the penalty offence, and didn’t flourish his red card to Schumacher as a result. What can you do?” With this comes a shrug of those rounded shoulders, and a shake of the head. What can you do indeed?
In 1985, at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, they chose to play on. “It was better to do so”, recalls the scorer of the lone goal in that infamous European Cup Final between Juventus and Liverpool, “because such was the mood in the stadium between the rival sets of fans that there was the potential for war between England and Italy, in my view”.
“It may seem strange to a spectator who watched the game on television, but it was not a difficult game for the players to play. Why? Because we did not know there had been a tragedy in the stadium. The teams were in their respective dressing rooms when we received warning that the kick-off would be delayed. It was only when we picked up the papers the following day that just what had actually happened hit home”.
After fifteen years of bisecting defences with his trademark pinpoint passes, or leaving goalkeepers stranded as his tantalising free-kicks curled into the top far corner of the net, Platini was appointed coach of the French national team barely months after playing his last international against Iceland.
Under his guidance, France missed out on qualifying for Italia ‘90 by a solitary point, but Euro ’92 proved to be a different kettle of fish entirely. “The team which I led to the 1992 European Championship Finals is the only one in the history of the entire competition to have won every single one of its qualifying matches”.
“Those eight victories were gained at the expense of Czechoslovakia, as they were then known, Spain, Iceland and Albania. It was part of a run of seventeen games without defeat which we enjoyed up until the end of 1991. At Euro ’92 itself, we bowed out to the eventual winners, Denmark, in our final group match”.
After this tournament, Platini moved out of the national manager’s hot-seat into an even more demanding yet highly prestigious role – Co-President of the Organising Committee for the 1998 World Cup Finals.
“That was a tremendous experience, and a difficult one, too. We tried to do our best, and I’d like to think we achieved what we set out to do. The triumph of the host nation, of course, was the icing on the cake”.
At the tournament’s final whistle, the sight of Platini celebrating in his French team-shirt is one of the enduring memories of the post-final celebrations. It contrasted with the poignancy of the passing of his fellow Co-President, Fernand Sastre, just four days into the tournament, an event which led the then-42-year-old to cope with his own sadness while remaining very much in the public eye – he attended all but eight of the sixty-four games played during France ’98.
“I learnt of his death, of lung cancer, on June 13, just two hours before the day’s first match took place. Of course, we quickly arranged for a minute’s silence to precede each game in his memory. However, I was not aware of any added pressure being placed on me by his passing”.
The conclusion of France ’98 signalled the end of another role in which Platini had enjoyed immense success. After a well-earned rest, he took on a new role just two months ago, as FIFA’s Sports Director.
“Part of my role is to advise the President of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, on the footballing side of the game. In his position, it is as important to talk to players as it is to politicians. Between us, we try to explain the direction the game is taking to all those who share a passion both for the game itself, and for the good of the game”.
Another aspect of the Frenchman‘s duties in his new job is the allocation of money – lots of money. “$US 263 million over the next four years, to be exact, a sum which has come about as a result of the television contracts negotiated by FIFA for coverage of the 2002 World Cup Finals in Japan and Korea”.
Each of the 203 national associations will receive $US 1 million over the next four years, while the six Confederations which make up FIFA will each receive $US 10 million in the same timeframe.
Platini‘s role is a huge one. He is responsible for overseeing the global funding process, and that any expenditure made using FIFA‘s money by the Confederations and the national associations is done so with the ultimate beneficiary being the game of football.
15 years later and after serving in several Administrative roles at UEFA and FIFA, Platini was elected to the UEFA presidency position On January 2007.
After what he has achieved as a player, as a manager and as a tournament organiser, this is probably his most challenging role yet, but one he will, no doubt, conquer. For he is the greatest football achiever of his generation, is Michel Platini – a real-life footballing legend.
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