Michel Platini 🇫🇷 (1976-1987): skills and goals

Описание: Regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, Platini won the Ballon d'Or three years in a row (in 1983, 1984 and 1985) and came seventh in the FIFA Player of the 20th Century vote. During his career, Platini played for the French clubs Nancy and Saint-Étienne, and most notably northern Italian club Juventus. Nicknamed "Le Roi" (The King) for his ability and leadership, he was a prolific goalscorer, one of the finest passers in football history, and one of the best ever penalty kick and free kick specialists to have ever played the game. Quick, versatile, elegant, and an intelligent offensive midfield playmaker, with a unique ability to read the game and bend the ball from set pieces, he was renowned in particular for his ball control, technical ability, dribbling skills, creativity, range of passing, and vision, despite his lack of notable physical or athletic attributes. He is shown scoring against Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Bulgaria, the Republic of Ireland, Switzerland, Italy, Brazil, Tunisia, Argentina, Sweden, the USA, Greece, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Kuwait, England, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Portugal, and Luxembourg. He also scored against Spain and West Germany. He earned 72 caps with France, scoring an impressive 41 goals. Platini was a key player of the France national team that won the 1984 European Championship, a tournament in which he was the top scorer and best player, and reached the semi-finals of the 1982 and 1986 World Cups. Together with midfielders Alain Giresse, Luis Fernández and Jean Tigana, he formed the "carré magique" (magic square) of the French team in the 1980s. Platini was his country's record goalscorer until 2007, and held the record for most goals scored (9) in the European Championship until being surpassed by Cristiano Ronaldo in 2021, despite only appearing in the 1984 tournament. Following his playing career, he became the national team's coach for some years and then a football administrator, helping organize the 1998 World Cup in France, which was won by the host nation. He later served as UEFA President but unfortunately was later banned from any involvement in football for eight years due to ethics violations. However, he was later cleared of any wrongdoing by a Swiss court in March of 2025. At the end of the video, he is shown scoring France's equalizer in their knockout phase match against favorites Brazil in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. France had just come from dispatching defending World Champions Italy while the flamboyant Brazilians had breezed through, winning all their previous matches without even conceding a goal. Brazil opened the score through a spectacular team goal by Careca, with the South Americans having dominated proceedings up until that point. But the French didn't back down and instead started to take the fight to the Brazilians afterwards. And their persistence paid off, when Dominique Rocheteau crossed into the Brazilian penalty box with Yannick Stopyra rushing to connect but failing partly due to a deflection. However, Platini had been paying attention all along, and swept in through the opposite side as the ball reached him to simply tap it into the net past Brazilian goalkeeper Carlos. Scoring chances would come back and forth, with both sides looking close to winning it in a game that is still rightly remembered as a FIFA World Cup classic. This thrilling encounter ended with the most remarkable of penalty shootouts, as stars of the caliber of Platini himself and the Brazilian Sócrates missed from the spot, before another Brazilian miss by Júlio César finally allowed Frenchman Luis Fernández to step up and seal a 4-3 shootout win for the reigning European Champions. Even though Les Bleus would yet again lose to West Germany in their second consecutive semi-final, they'd finish a memorable campaign by overcoming surprise package Belgium 4-2 in another entertaining match for Third Place, thereby matching their greatest World Cup performance from 1958 (until 1998, when they became World Champions).

Je vieux le dédier à mon oncle bien-amé Charlie. Repose en paix!

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