Retirement

 

Retirement. Always a tense moment – was it too early; was it too late? Nobody wants their favourites to quite and nobody wants them to become pale shadows of themselves, to become a disgrace. In the case of Platini it looked like too early – he was still at the top and announcing retirement at 32 felt disappointing. It was also felt just right – a great player stepping down before becoming a mockery of himself. To be remembered well, without 'ifs' and 'buts', shining bright. In retrospective, his decision to announce retirement at the end of the 1986-87 Italian season only became more plausible, justified and wise. Just a few months before he played his last game for France.

April 1987 – Platini captained France in the home game against Iceland. France won 2-0, which was the only win of the 1986 World bronze medalists in this year. It was a team going through changes and going down. Platini apparently sensed what was coming – and left after a victory. Excellent timing.

Soon after he announced his retirement from the game – Juventus finished 2^nd in the championship and was not the great winning team anymore. Platini was not enough to keep neither Juventus, nor France on the top in the turbulent time of rebuilding. His timing was right. And there was another factor, largely unnoticed at the time – he looked healthy, but injuries were taking their toll. His career was not all that rosy, as it appeared to be from aside – he was playing professional football 15 years already. And because he was a great star, nobody remembered that he played football by chance – 15 years later, his body alone remembered. He did not mentioned this reason when he announced his retirement after the match against Brescia in June 1987 – he said "I played for Nancy because it was my hometown club and the best in Lorraine, for Saint-Étienne because it was the best team in France, and for Juventus because it is the best team in the world!" instead. Sounds great, but the beginning was not so – he was unable to make a trial with Metz because of injury. A second trial failed with terrible medical verdict: breathing difficulties and weak heart. He was not only not to play for Metz, but very likely not to play professional football at all. But he did and in 1972 debuted for Nancy – it happened thanks to a hat-trick he scored earlier for the reserve side of the club and he made his first appearance for the first team on May 3, 1973 against Nimes. And soon he was a regular.

Yes, we remember Platini with number 10, but at the beginning he had to play with other numbers – 8, sometimes 11. Number 8 seems right, though – for he was primarily a playmaker, although not entirely – rather, an attacking midfielder-playmaker, something between classic number 8 and 10. Yes, he made the first team, but Nancy was playing in the Second Division – quite well, as it happened, but for Platini it was not a steady climb up: he suffered heavy injury, a double fracture of his left arm in March 1974 and missed the rest of teh season. Nancy was going back to Second Division meantime.

Another setback was inevitable military service – although he served largely in Army team, he was not regularly available for Nancy. But he served together with his old friend, the goalkeeper Moutier, with whom he trained his famous (later) free-kicks. And after the Army – new setback: booed by Laval fans and angered by that, he scored three goals and injured again himself in the effort. Another season was going to be cut short... however, initial reports proved untrue. At least for awhile, for two weeks later he had to leave the field injured in the Cup semi-final against St. Etienne. Nancy lost it 1-4, he scored the only goal for his side. A string of injuries, but when he was healthy, his talent was very noticeable.

Which earned him a place in the French Olympic team – with them, he played at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. And that in turn earned him his first professional contract – Nancy signed him for 2 years.

And now he debuted for the national team of France. Still the young broom, wearing number 8, against Czechoslovakia in 1976, on March 27th. It was the debut of both Michel Hidalgo at the helm of France and his most memorable player. The match ended 2-2, but this time there was no setbacks, no doubts – a star was born. Platini scored his first goal for France in his first match from his trademark free-kick. And France was only going up after that.

From shaky talented youngster to bright young star, acclaimed around Europe.

From mere hopeful, happy to have his photo next to the current stars – the Revelli brothers – in 1973 to playing along them in 1976 and outshining them.

With him in the center France qualified to the 1978 World Cup finals – for the first time since 1966.

And Nancy was not doing badly with him either – in 1976 he was already wearing number 10.

However, he won the French Cup with number 9. At the time, he was the captain of Nancy and France was going to play at the 1978 World Cup.

And performed well in Argentina – both France and Platini made impression, even if they eliminated in the preliminary group stage. And once again misfortune... it was their bad luck to have no required reserve kit for the game against Hungary and played with borrowed shirts from a local club. France and Platini with unfamiliar green-white stripes.

Stardom has its own demands – Nancy was too small for Platini and St. Etienne was rebuilding, determined to stay best. Platini was part of the new team, joining them in 1979.

Playing along with Johnny Rep was great, winning was great, but... St. Etienne with Platini was not the great team of mid-70s. They failed to reach the international success of the previous generation. Still, for Platini was big step up – this time he was winning championships! And was a hot property too – around 1978 not only St. Etienne was interested of obtaining him, but real interest built up after 1980 when Italy opened its market for foreign players. Juventus, Inter, Arsenal, Napoli, Barcelona, Valencia were interested – for one or another reason, the next move happened in 1982, when France played excellent World Cup, lead by Platini – he already a big international star, his status amply confirmed by the great performance of France. Juventus was the next stop and with them – both domestic and international success. "We bought him for a morsel of bread and he put foie gras on top of it!", said Gianni Agnelli, then the President of Juventus. Admiration was mutual, although the first season was rather shaky and remained so until Platini and Boniek rebelled against the coach's tactics and required different style of playing, more suitable to their great abilities.

And in 1984 France won the European title – the highest success of this great squad, lead by Platini. Winning at last! Winners! Platini was the best European player, one of the very best in the world. He was 29 – that was perhaps the key: he was getting old, inevitably beginning to think of the twilight of his career, feeling old and new injuries – how long he could play without becoming a disgrace, for great things were expected from great stars and nothing less. The 1986 World Cup was a disappointment, for France again failed to reach the final – played great and failed... In 1987 Boniek was no longer with Juventus. Both the national team of France and Juventus were going into the process of rebuilding – the old great stars were stepping down and the new boys were not quite right. Times were changing too, bringing new leaders and stars – Argentina won the World Cup, lead by Maradona, Napoli, also lead by Maradona, was reaching its peak. Juventus and France were at the other side of the curve, going down... it was the best moment to retire: his teams were still strong, respected, not a mockery of themselves. Platini call it a day. He played for three clubs:

Nancy – 1972-79: 181 games and 98 goals,

St. Etienne – 1979-82: 104 games and 58 goals, and

Juventus – 1982-87: 147 games and 68 goals.

A total of 432 games and 224 goals on club level.

For France, he played 72 games and scored 41 goals between 1976 and 1987. Add 7 games and 4 goals for the French Olympic team. And lastly he played one more national team match – in 1988 he was persuaded to come out of retirement by the Kuwaiti Emir and on November 27 played 21 minutes for Kuwait in a friendly against USSR. The match ended 0-2, which was not surprising. However, it was official game – and it is a bit of mystery how it counts, for technically Platini could not represent Kuwait by FIFA rules. But he played, the game apparently did not create any fuss or threats with sanctions for Kuwait. That was the last official match Platini played, so his retirement came when? In 1987 or in 1988? Never mind.

At the end dry statistics tell it best: winning the French Cup with Nancy in 1978, the French title with St. Etienne in 1981, the Italian Cup with Juventus in 1983, the Italian title with Juventus in 1984 and 1986, the Cup Winners Cup with Juventus in 1984, the European Champions Cup with Juventus in 1985, the Intercontinental Cup with Juventus in 1986, World Cup bronze medals with France in 1982 and 1986, European champion with France in 1984, three times top scorer of the Italian championship in 1982-83, 1983-84, and 1984-85, three times voted European Player of the Year in 1983, 1984, and 1985.

Platini was universally loved player, for he was everything fans dream of: highly skillful, imaginative and creative player with great vision and passing abilities. One who weaves beautiful games, creates great opportunities for his teammates and scores beautiful goals. His free-kicks were always a delight. Graceful, elegant, intelligent, with unique ability to read the game and control it, a wonderful dribbler and also a gentleman on the field – he was never sent-off, never retaliated to provocations and rarely argued with the referees. He really deserved his nickname 'Le Roi' – the King – and Pele considered him the most influential player of the 1980s. However, Platini was not always praised by specialists: he was criticized first of all for lack of enthusiasm in training, particularly physical training. As many of the greatest stars he disliked training, the hard work, preferring the artistry of real competitive game. In his own words, 'we're not going to compete in the 5000 metres at the Olympics, we have to play with our feet.' Naturally, he was criticized – sometimes even by teammates- for his reluctance to help defensively. Poor defensive work-rate and lack of stamina. Compared to Cruijff – inevitable at the time – he lacked the explosivity of the Dutchman and some even thought him physically weaker, which sounds laughable, for when Cruijff was at his peak he was criticized pretty much for the same faults: poor defensive work-rate, lack of stamina and reluctance to work on his physical deficiencies. Lastly, Platini was criticized for lack of restrain in celebrating Juventus's win at the ill-fated European Champions Cup final in 1985. The Heysel Stadium tragedy was very dark, indeed – many thought the final should not have been played at all after the fight on the stands left 39 dead and over 600 injured. The game was further tarnished by the controversial penalty awarded to Juventus from which Platini scored the only goal and thus won the trophy for Juventus. Boniek was brought down outside penalty area, but the referee decided the foul was committed inside. Platini defended himself by saying that he was not fully aware of the dimensions of the tragedy and as for the penalty – the referees decide them, not the players. True, on both counts... after all, it was not the players deciding to play the final, but officials. And official gave the penalty. But his excuses sounded shallow – the death toll waited darkly against every word a player would say. This should have been the greatest moment in Platini's career – winning the European Champions Cup for both himself and Juventus, but instead became dark moment in which he was guilty of celebrating unfair victory, a feast in time of plague... somehow his scoring and celebration justified previous injustice: the shameful vicious foul committed by Tony Schumacher in the semi-final of the 1982 World Cup, leaving Battiston almost dead and practically robbing France of a chance to win the world title. Apart from such negative sides, Platini's career was almost blameless and in any case the general opinion of him remained very positive. Stepping down in 1987 perhaps was very wise decision in terms of future – Platini was mainly loved and remembered as adorable great player.

He stepped out of his football boots to step in another kind of shoes – that of a coach first and administrator later and this part of his life did no go plausible, respectful, and adorable, so let remember the player and not the administrator.