adminPARIS. — Making the right pass at a crucial moment made Michel Platini one of the world’s greatest footballers, but poor timing has cost him his place as one of the most powerful men in sport.
The 60-year-old Frenchman – banned for eight years yesterday – regularly battled back from injury and other blows to star in some of football’s most dramatic moments as a player. Escaping FIFA’s corruption turmoil has been a trick too far.
The time between his work as an advisor to FIFA president Sepp Blatter between 1999 and 2002 and a two million Swiss francs ($2 million) payment he received in 2011 was not great tactics.
A FIFA court said yesterday that the reason for the payment stretched credibility.
The grandson of Italian migrants, Platini was born and brought up in the small steel town of Joeuf in eastern France. His father Aldo was a local maths teacher and football coach.
The young Michel quickly showed a gift with the ball. But French football nearly missed out on his talents. He missed one trial with local heavyweights Metz because of injury. For the second he failed a medical test because of the club’s fears about his heart.
Eventually, Nancy signed him and the rest is football history.
Platini won the French Cup with Nancy, a league title with Saint-Etienne and was lured to Juventus in 1982. In Turin, the genius playmaker won two Serie A titles and a European Cup.
The passes were always inch-perfect and for a time, Platini was one of the greatest players in the world. He won the 1984 European Championship with France and the Ballon d’Or in 1983, 1984 and 1985. — AFP.
Online Reporter