Michel Platini
Michel François Platini was born on the 21st of June 1955 in the small town of Jœuf, Meurthe-et-Moselle. His parents were Aldo and Anna Platini, both of Italian ancestry. Anna's family traced its roots to Belluno, while Aldo's father had immigrated from Agrate Conturbia after World War I. The young Michel faced significant health challenges early in life that nearly ended his football career before it began. A breathing test using a spirometer caused him to faint during a trial with Metz. Doctors diagnosed him with breathing difficulties and a weak heart, effectively ending any hopes he had of playing for his boyhood favorites. He returned to regional league football with Jœuf instead.
His breakthrough came at age sixteen when he impressed scouts in a Coupe Gambardella tournament match against a Metz junior side. Despite the earlier medical setbacks, he caught attention and eventually joined the reserve side of Nancy in September 1972. His father, Aldo, served as a long-time director for AS Nancy, the club where Michel started his professional career. He quickly made an impression by scoring a hat-trick in a reserve team match against Wittelsheim. However, his introduction to the first-team squad was inauspicious. On the substitutes' bench for a match against Valenciennes, he was spat on and hit by objects thrown from the crowd during a fight. Later, a hefty challenge left him with a bad ankle injury.
In March 1974, he suffered a double fracture of his left arm in a match at OGC Nice. This setback forced him to miss the remainder of the season while Nancy struggled 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 seventeen goals, many of which were scored from free-kicks. He practiced these set pieces with the help of his friend, goalkeeper Jean-Michel Moutier, using a row of dummies to form a defensive wall.
Platini moved to Saint-Étienne in 1979 after his contract with Nancy expired. His three years there were a mixed success despite some excellent results including a six-zero win over PSV in the 1979, 80 UEFA Cup. The club won the French league title in 1981 but lost two consecutive French Cup finals. He left for Juventus in 1982 for a nominal transfer fee under UEFA regulations. At Juventus, he inherited the number ten shirt from Liam Brady and faced intense scrutiny from Italian sports media.
His time at Juventus brought unprecedented individual glory. He finished top scorer in Serie A for three consecutive seasons between 1982 and 1985. This achievement earned him the capocannoniere award three times in a row. He also won the European Footballer of the Year award, known as the Ballon d'Or, three consecutive times in 1983, 1984, and 1985. In 1984 and 1985, World Soccer magazine voted him Player of the Year. He helped Juventus win the European Cup in 1985, scoring the only goal of the match against Liverpool from a penalty kick.
That victory was overshadowed by tragedy at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels where thirty-nine people died and six hundred more were injured during riots before the match began. Platini scored the winning penalty after a foul on Zbigniew Boniek had been awarded controversially. In the days following the final, he faced criticism for his lack of restraint in celebrating the win. He maintained that he had not been made fully aware of the scale of the disaster. Despite this darkness, he continued to dominate, helping Juventus win the Intercontinental Cup later that year.
Platini captained France to success in the European Championship held on home soil in 1984. His individual impact on the team was enormous as he scored nine of France's fourteen goals in just five games. This made him by far the top goal scorer of the tournament despite appearing in only one major competition. He scored the winner in France's opening match against Denmark and then delivered two perfect hat-tricks against Belgium and Yugoslavia.
The semi-final in Marseille against Portugal remains a memorable moment in football history. Platini scored the final goal of the match in the last minute of extra time to secure a three-two win. In the final against Spain at the Parc des Princes in Paris, he opened the scoring with a free kick-goal. A monumental blunder from Spanish goalkeeper Luis Arconada helped create the opportunity. Bruno Bellone added a second goal in injury time to secure France's first major title in international football.
He held the record for most goals scored in the European Championship until being surpassed by Cristiano Ronaldo in 2021. Platini did not take part in third-place matches during either the 1982 or 1986 World Cups. He retired from international play after his last appearance for France on the 29th of April 1987 in a qualifier against Iceland. In seventy-two appearances for France between 1976 and 1987, including forty-nine as captain, he scored forty-one times.
Platini is considered one of the greatest players of all time and regarded as one of the finest passers in football history. He was also one of the best ever penalty kick and free kick specialists to have played the game. His unique free kick technique often involved him hitting the ball over the wall from a distance of around twenty metres. This style influenced many other specialists such as Alessandro Del Piero and Andrea Pirlo.
Although he primarily served as a creative midfielder operating behind strikers, he was also a prolific goalscorer. Due to his footballing intelligence and movement, he created attacking opportunities for himself by playing exchanges with teammates until he could receive the ball and score. He won several top-scoring awards throughout his career at both club and international level. Pundits consider him one of the best finishers of all time despite being naturally right-footed yet scoring with either foot or his head.
His leadership and technical attributes earned him the nickname Le Roi meaning The King in French. Moreover, Platini was known for his discipline on the pitch since he was never sent off during his extensive career. Critics sometimes pointed out his lack of stamina and poor defensive work-rate but these flaws did not diminish his status as a decisive player.
Platini confirmed that he would run for the UEFA presidency in July 2006. In the election held in Düsseldorf on the 26th of January 2007, he defeated Lennart Johansson who had held the post for sixteen years by twenty-seven votes to twenty-three. His speech focused on virtues of solidarity and universality. As president starting in 2015, he backed various policy proposals including caps on wages and transfer spending.
In 2008, Platini supported the six plus five idea which required teams to field six home-grown players alongside five foreign players. He also advocated reducing the number of Italian, Spanish, and English teams participating in the Champions League to a maximum of three instead of four. Among his more contentious claims was that international transfers of players under eighteen were a form of illegal child trafficking. He told members of the European Parliament on the 18th of February 2009 that paying a child to kick a ball is no different from paying a child to work in a factory.
He continued climbing the ranks of football administration serving as chairman of FIFA's Technical and Development Committee since 2006 while also acting as vice-president of the French Football Federation. Before becoming president he served on the UEFA Executive Committee and European member of the FIFA Executive Committee since 2002.
Following Sepp Blatter's announcement in June 2015 that he would resign from the post of FIFA president amid corruption allegations, Platini announced in July that he would run for FIFA president in the 2016 special election. However, Swiss prosecutors accused him of receiving a disloyal payment of two million dollars from Blatter. Both men were placed under formal investigation by FIFA's independent ethics committee in late September 2015.
On the 8th of October 2015, Platini was provisionally suspended until the 6th of January 2016 from any football-related activity. On the 21st of December, both Platini and Blatter were found guilty of ethics violations and barred from the sport until 2023. The committee stated that Platini did not show commitment to an ethical attitude and lacked respect for laws and regulations of the organization. He boycotted the hearing and declared himself at peace with his conscience before appealing to Swiss courts and the European Court of Human Rights.
Platini was also involved in the Greek public polemic regarding the 2015 Greek football scandal and named in the Panama Papers in April 2016. In June 2019, he was questioned over the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. In July 2022, he was acquitted of charges involving fraud, forgery, mismanagement, and misappropriation of more than two million dollars of FIFA money. This acquittal was confirmed on appeal in March 2025.
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Common questions
When and where was Michel Platini born?
Michel François Platini was born on the 21st of June 1955 in the small town of Jœuf, Meurthe-et-Moselle. His parents were Aldo and Anna Platini, both of Italian ancestry.
What major injury did Michel Platini suffer in March 1974?
In March 1974, Michel Platini suffered a double fracture of his left arm during a match at OGC Nice. This injury forced him to miss the remainder of the season while Nancy struggled to avoid relegation from Ligue 1.
How many Ballon d'Or awards did Michel Platini win consecutively?
Michel Platini won the European Footballer of the Year award known as the Ballon d'Or three consecutive times in 1983, 1984, and 1985. He also finished top scorer in Serie A for three consecutive seasons between 1982 and 1985.
Who scored the winning goal for France in the 1984 European Championship final against Spain?
Michel Platini opened the scoring with a free kick-goal in the final against Spain at the Parc des Princes in Paris. Bruno Bellone added a second goal in injury time to secure France's first major title in international football.
When was Michel Platini suspended from football activities due to ethics violations?
On the 8th of October 2015, Michel Platini was provisionally suspended until the 6th of January 2016 from any football-related activity. On the 21st of December, both Platini and Sepp Blatter were found guilty of ethics violations and barred from the sport until 2023.