Platini Has the World at His Feet : Frenchman Is Considered Soccer’s Best All-Around Player

The document is numbered 008550 and dated 10 SEP 1966.

Attached in the upper left-hand corner is the photograph of an ordinary-looking boy with short, dark hair, somewhat protruding ears and a mouth turned down at the corners.

Printed across the top of the document are the words Federation Francaise De Football, Licence Pupille, 1966-67. Just beneath that is the name of the region, Lorraine, and the name of the club, Association Sportive Jovicienne.

It is not until one looks at the next few lines that one realizes the document’s historic nature.

There is the date of the boy’s birth: 21.06.1955. His address: 7, Rue St. Exupery, Joeuf. And, finally, his name: Platini, Michel.

“I obtained my first player’s license--which is the system we have in France--when I was 11 years old,” the man generally considered to be the world’s finest all-around soccer player explains two decades later. “There is nothing unusual in that. It happens to be the age at which most boys join an organized club.

“Then, when I was 17, four professional clubs were on the doorstep, wanting me to join them. It was only then that I realized I might have what it takes to make a career in the game. No more than that.

“Whether I have any particular talent which is out of the ordinary is not for me to judge. If the coaches and journalists think that, I am very flattered, but I don’t go around claiming that on my own behalf.”

Michel Platini has no need to do so. Over the last 10 years, his exploits on the soccer fields of the world have more than convinced everyone that he does, indeed, possess an extraordinary talent.

Said London’s World Soccer magazine last December:

His achievements on the pitch (field) speak for themselves, while his vision as a midfield general, dribbling skills and lethal finishing have made him an outstanding figure in world football.

Diego Maradona’s technique may be even more magical, but in terms of imaginative achievement the Argentine cannot compare.

And from World Cup historian Brian Glanville of the London Sunday Times:

Michel Platini is a perfectionist. Those astonishing, swerving free kicks, those beautifully executed, instant passes with the outside of the foot, splitting a defense, are the product not of mere talent, but of hours of practice. Admittedly, he no longer spends hours practicing his free kicks in front of a row of life-sized wooden dummies, bending the ball around them, but that is how they were perfected.

That he doesn’t enjoy “closing down” or tackling opponents is of massive irrelevance. . . . Platini is an artist, a player of superb vision and an almost perfect technique. . . . To ask him (to tackle) would be to ask a racehorse to pull a plough.

The racehorse analogy is an apt one. Platini is in every way a thoroughbred in his sport. Yet, for all his success, he remains an unimposing figure, standing barely 5 feet 10 inches and weighing little more than 160 pounds.

His appearance, too, is deceiving. He looks like anything but one of the world’s finest athletes.

A quick sketch: A tousled head of dark hair worn over those protruding ears that were the subject of childhood teasing. Heavy eyebrows shading deep-set, somewhat sleepy-looking brown eyes. A narrow, jutting jawline bearing the ever-present shadow of a beard. A rather weak mouth, compensated for by a ready smile. In all, a boyish sort of appearance, even on the eve of his 31st birthday.

And yet, on Saturday at Guadalajara, this same boy-man will lead France against Brazil in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup tournament.

France, which Platini led to the World Cup semifinals in 1982 and to the championship of Europe in 1984, is just three victories away from garnering the only honor that has so far escaped its captain. Given Platini’s age and that of several other French stars, this may be La Belle France’s last chance.

Even so, before leaving for Mexico, Platini declined to make any predictions.

“I’m not going to make any boasts about what we will do,” he said. “I realize that after finishing fourth in Spain and after winning the European championship, we will certainly be among the favorites in Mexico.

“All I can promise is that we will do our best to win. There will be problems, of course. People talk about the altitude and the heat and the smog and so on, and the problems of playing at midday. But to my mind the only ‘natural’ problem will be the altitude. As for the rest, well, it’s amazing how a little bit of success can carry you through.”

Platini should know. Born in the small mining town of Joeuf in northeast France, he was introduced to soccer at an early age by his father, Aldo, a mathematics teacher and local soccer coach. The name Platini, incidentally, is Italian, Platini’s grandparents having come from Italy.

After obtaining his first player’s license in 1966, he quickly made a name for himself on the youth level despite his slight build. By 1972 he was playing professionally with Nancy, Lorraine’s top team.

After seven seasons with Nancy, during which time he had also represented France on the youth, under-21 and international levels, as well as playing for the French army team and for France in the 1976 Olympic Games at Montreal, latini was ready to move on.

He was signed by one of the most famous French teams, Saint Etienne of Paris, stayed there for three seasons and then, after the 1982 World Cup, was sold to Juventus of Turin. It has been with the Italian club that he has achieved his greatest success.

During the last four years, Platini has:

--Been named Europe’s player of the year in 1983, 1984 and 1985, a feat unmatched by even such great players as West Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer and the Netherlands’ Johan Cruyff.

--Led France to the European championship in 1984.

--Won Italian championships in 1984 and 1986, and the Italian cup in 1983 with Juventus.

--Helped Juventus win the European Cup in 1985, the European Cup Winner’s Cup in 1984 and the world club championship in 1985.

--Been the leading scorer in the defense-minded Italian league three times, 1983, ’84 and ’86.

In the European player-of-the-year voting in 1984, Platini received 128 of a possible 130 votes cast by European sportswriters. In 1985, he received 127 of the 130.

In 606 games for club and country, Platini has scored 349 goals, his most recent last Tuesday in France’s 2-0 victory over Italy. The win, France’s first over Italy in 66 years, knocked the defending world champions out of the competition.

And what of the future? What happens after the World Cup is over, when his contract with Juventus has expired? Will Platini retire soon?

In a December interview with World Soccer magazine, he suggested that that option might not be too far away.

“The enjoyment went out the window a long time ago,” he said. “I enjoy training, but that’s the limit of it. For example, after we won the European championship final against Spain, what I enjoyed in the following couple of weeks was not a sense of success, but being able to relax. At such a level, and playing for such fine teams, you expect to win. It’s strange, but I probably feel more deeply about a match when we’ve lost.”

As for retirement: “I haven’t set a date. I don’t think that’s possible. My present contract with Juventus ends in June, 1986, and then I will look around and take stock. Maybe I’ll carry on, maybe not.

“There was a lot of newspaper talk that I would go to the United States, but there doesn’t seem to be much there at the moment.

“When I do stop playing, I’ll spend my time looking after my business interests, and in particular my sports center at St. Cyprien in the south of France. We concentrate there on football and tennis. We’ve got five football pitches and 30 tennis courts. It’s a project that is very important to me.

“Also, my family is very important to me. My wife, my two children, my parents are my refuge from all the pressures of being what I have become to the outside world. It’s the peace I find in my home, with my family, that keeps me sane.”

That and the knowledge of one more goal to attain, one more trophy to bring home--the World Cup. Can France do it?

“People keep asking me about the ‘French miracle’ in the European finals,” Platini said. “But there was no miracle, no revolution. It was simply that our team had grown up. In the last World Cup we didn’t have the maturity to be confident of winning the games that mattered away from home.

“We have now gained that. But it has taken seven years’ hard work. It’s like me. People have said I am an overnight success. They just don’t know. . . . “

But if they want to see where it all began, the document is numbered 008550 and dated 10 SEP 1966.