Michel Platini

Michel François Platini (born 21 June 1955) is a French former football player, manager and current
president of UEFA. Platini was a member of the French national team that won the 1984 European
Championship, a tournament in which he was voted the best player and top goalscorer. He
participated in the 1978, 1982 and 1986 World Cups, reaching the semi-finals in the latter two.
Platini, Alain Giresse,,Luis Fernández and Jean Tigana together made up the "carré magique"
(French for "magic square"), the group of midfield players that formed the heart of the French national
team throughout the 1980s. He is also widely regarded as one of the best passers in football history
as well as one of history's greatest free kick specialists and finishers. He holds the record for most
goals (9) scored in European Championship final tournaments despite only appearing in one such
tournament (1984). Despite being a midfielder, he held the national team top scorer record
until Thierry Henry surpassed the 41 goals mark in 2007.

Platini was named Chevalier of the Legion of Honour on 29 April 1985 and became Officier in 1988.
He was the French national team coach for four years, and was the co-organizer of the 1998 World
Cup in France. He has also been the chairman of the FIFA Technical and Development Committee,
and vice-president of the French Football Federation. His Italian father Aldo was also a professional
footballer and a long-time director for AS Nancy, the club where Michel started his professional
career.

Early career
Platini performed poorly in the final of the 1969 young footballers' competition, but at 16 years of age
he attracted attention in a Coupe Gambardella tournament match with an impressive display for Jœuf
juniors against a Metz junior side. Platini was called up for a trial with Metz, but missed out on the
opportunity due to injury, and was not immediately invited back after the Metz coach moved to
another club. He returned to regional league football with Jœuf. Another trial at Metz went horribly
wrong when a breathing test on a spirometer caused Platini to faint. The doctor's verdict on Platini's
breathing difficulties and weak heart ended any hopes Platini had of playing for his boyhood favorites.
He then joined the reserve side of his father's club Nancy in September 1972, and became friends
with team goalkeeper Jean-Michel Moutier.

Platini at Nancy (1972–1979)

Platini was quick to make a big impression at his new club, scoring a hat-trick in a reserve team match
against Wittelsheim. Further outstanding displays put him in contention for a place in the Nancy first
team. His introduction to the first-team squad was inauspicious. On the substitutes' bench for a match
against Valenciennes, Platini was spat on and hit by various objects thrown from the crowd when a
fight broke out in the stands. Playing for the reserves a few days later, a hefty challenge from an
opponent left Platini with a bad ankle injury. His season would finish on a more positive note, and he
would go on to make his league debut against Nîmes on 3 May 1973.
In March 1974, he suffered a setback when he sustained a double fracture of his left arm in a match
at OGC Nice. Platini missed the remainder of the season as a result, unable to assist Nancy in an
unsuccessful bid to avoid relegation from Ligue 1. The following season saw Nancy win promotion
back to the French first division with ease. Platini became the team's most important player, scoring
17 goals, a number of which were scored from free-kicks, as was becoming Platini's specialty. Saint-
Étienne, the then reigning French league champions, were knocked out of the French Cup with two
goals from Platini free-kicks. Platini practised his free-kicks with the help of his friend, goalkeeper
Moutier, and using a row of dummies to form a defensive wall of sorts.

With Nancy back in Ligue 1, Platini's military service reduced his availability for matches, but he
continued to make himself available to play when possible. In a match away to Laval, Platini, angered
by the taunts of the home supporters, scored a hat-trick, but unluckily sustained another injury. Press
reports claimed that Platini's season was over and that he would require a knee operation, but neither
claim proved to be correct. Instead, Platini returned to first-team football two weeks later for Nancy's
French Cup semi-final against Marseille at theParc des Princes. Platini headed the only Nancy goal in
their 4–1 loss and was forced to leave the field injured.

Following his participation in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Platini signed a two-year contract with
Nancy, his first professional contract.

Before travelling to Argentina for the World Cup, Platini won the first major trophy of his playing
career, captaining Nancy to victory in the 1978 French Cup final against Nice and scoring the only
goal of the game. President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing presented him with the trophy. However, with
the World Cup scheduled to start two weeks after the cup final, there was little time left for
preparation.

Although Platini was not disgraced by his performances at his first World Cup, fans held him
responsible for the French team's failure to progress in the tournament, and in the season that
followed he was a target of jeering crowds. The situation came to a head in a match away to Saint-
Étienne. Spurred on by booing fans, Platini competed for every ball, and he picked up a bad ankle
injury in a tackle. As a result, he was ruled out of Nancy's Cup Winners' Cup campaign. His contract
with the club expired in June 1979, and Internazionale, Paris Saint-Germain, and Saint-Étienne
emerged as the clubs most likely to sign him, although the Nancy club president had been unwilling to
let Platini leave the club. Having set his mind on a transfer to Saint-Étienne, he signed a three-year
contract with les Verts.

In spite of his injuries and the boos that would greet him, Platini maintained his pranksterish sense of
humour. On away trips, he would set off firecrackers in public places and then pretend to be dead,
inevitably drawing a crowd. While in Argentina for the World Cup, he would squeeze tubes of
toothpaste into his team-mates' beds.
Platini at Juventus (1982–1987)

Michel Platini holding aloft the Ballon d'Or in Juventus colours.

At Juventus, in a team featuring numerous members of Italy's victorious World Cup squad, Platini had
a difficult introduction to Italian football. He was a target in the demanding Italian sports media, and
even came close to leaving Italy in the winter of his first season. Platini and teammate Zbigniew
Boniek successfully called for a change in tactics, and in the second half of the season Juventus saw
an upturn in their fortunes. They reached the European Cup final, losing to Hamburger SV, and won
the Italian Cup, the first of many club honours to follow for Platini in the coming seasons. He won
the Italian championship with Juventus in 1984 and 1986, the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1984,
the 1984 European Super Cup, the European Cup in 1985 and the 1985 Intercontinental Cup. He
finished top scorer in Serie A for three consecutive seasons (1982–83, 1983–84, and 1984–85), and
won a hat-trick of European Footballer of the Year awards (1983 through 1985). Platini was also
voted Player of the Year by World Soccer magazine in 1984 and 1985.

The 1985 European Cup final against Liverpool at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels should have been
the crowning moment of Platini's Juventus career, but was instead overshadowed by the Heysel
Stadium disaster in which 39 people died, and 600 more were injured. It was decided to proceed with
the match in order to avoid inciting any further trouble, and after both captains had appealed for calm,
the match began just under an hour and a half beyond schedule, with riot police still engaged in a
pitched battle with Juventus fans. Platini scored the only goal of the match from a penalty kick
awarded for a foul on Zbigniew Boniek. In the days following the final, Platini was criticised in some
quarters for his lack of restraint in celebrating Juventus' win. In his own defence, Platini maintained
that like every other player on the field, he had not been made fully aware of the scale of the disaster.

Following the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, Platini spent another season at Juventus before retiring
from football in June 1987.

Platini was named coach of the French national side on 1 November 1988, replacing Henri Michel,
who had been forced out after France infamously drew with Cyprus (1–1) in a 1990 World
Cup qualifier. France's qualifying campaign was ultimately unsuccessful.

The focus of the team shifted to qualifying for the 1992 European Championship in Sweden. France
excelled in the qualifying stages, winning all eight of their group matches, including notable victories
away to Spain and Czechoslovakia. After a record 19-match unbeaten run, they were among the
favourites to win the competition and Platini was named Manager of the Year by the World Soccer
Awards. But a string of uninspiring performances in warm-up matches, followed by France's first-
round elimination from the tournament, led Platini to step down as coach. On 9 July 2010, the day
before the 3rd/4th place playoff of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Platini collapsed at a
restaurant in the Michaelangelo Hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg. He was rushed to the Morningside
Medi-Clinic with a suspected heart attack after having received first aid care by a Brazilian radio
director who was sitting at a table next to him. He was attended to and discharged by cardiologist and
former President of the South African Heart Association - Dr Leonard Steingo. [8]. The official
statement released by FIFA confirmed that Platini was discharged, stating that the UEFA President
was "fine, and merely suffering from a bout of flu."[9] Platini was confirmed in attendance at the final
between Spain and Holland on the evening of the 11th of July.