Like every week, we present to you one of the legends of ASSE. Now for the ten best players in the history of the Greens. Those who occupy a special place in the club firmament. They marked an era, a generation. They took part in the legend and allowed the Greens to still be special in the hearts of the French today. Here is the portrait of the 4th: Michel Platini (145 matches, 82 goals from 1979 to 1982).
The best French player signs for the best club in France
Michel Platini was born on June 2, 1955 in Joeuf (Meurthe-et-Moselle). He enjoyed the glory days of the local team, AS Joeuf before joining the AS Nancy-Lorraine training center, not without being rejected by Metz for respiratory failure. In 1979, he was the best French international player, winner of the French Cup in 1978 by scoring the only goal of the match in the final and with already a World Cup to his credit. Nancy announced that he could not keep his jewel that he pays 6,000 francs per month and the midfielder attracts the desire of all the biggest French or European clubs. Nantes, Marseille, Paris SG, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia, Inter Milan (with whom he signed a pre-contract) and even Bayern Munich are ready to pay Platini the salary of 1 million francs per year, the sum he demanded. There is of course Saint-Etienne which dreams of hiring the international midfielder to regain its prestige somewhat lost since the Glasgow final in 1976.
And on May 29, 1979, Roger Rocher, accompanied by Pierre Garonnaire and Jean-Claude Marjollet, the club secretary, managed to discreetly sign Michel Platini for two seasons. In exchange for this transaction, Nancy receives the sum of 1,200,000 francs as training compensation. The Saint-Etienne leaders won the decision over their competitors, because they established a financial package by taking some liberties with the law. The French star wanted a million francs net per year. Also, Saint-Etienne has undertaken to pay him a salary of 83,300 francs plus bonuses and to reimburse him in cash the amount of taxes to be paid.
This will result in Platini finding himself in the dock during the painful Black Fund affair. In addition, Rocher accepted that the player negotiates his advertising contracts himself, which he had always refused until then. Dominique Rocheteau still remembers it, he who had to bow by court decision to the intransigence of his president. On May 31, 1979, the journalist Eugène Saccomano himself announced on the air of Europe 1 the signing of the player for ASSE. A fine player, he bowed even though he had used all his influence to ensure that Platini chose Nantes in accordance with the directives of his boss, Lagardère, also sponsor of the FCNA.
Platini, a mixed record at ASSE, but exploits
When Platini arrived in Saint-Etienne, he discovered a completely different universe and took two months to acclimatize to the demands of Robert Herbin, whose physical preparation was renowned and feared. Alongside Johnny Rep, another star transfer of the summer, he is however decisive in allowing ASSE to make a thunderous start in the championship. The Greens won eight of the first ten days for only two draws, including a prestigious victory in Marseille, beaten 5-3.
Unfortunately, a defeat at Lens 4-3, while ASSE led 3-1 with a quarter of an hour to go, stopped a machine which seemed invincible. To make matters worse, Platini was seriously injured on October 10, 1979 with the French team against the United States (major knee sprain). Which has the gift of provoking the anger of the Saint-Etienne staff towards the coach Michel Hidalgo, guilty in their eyes of having organized a completely useless meeting at this time of the year.
Saint-Etienne is preparing to play without its strategist, the second round of the UEFA Cup against PSV Eindhoven after eliminating Boniek's Widzew Lodz (Platini's future teammate at Juve). However, the Saint-Etienne medical unit is working miracles and Platini can be present on the pitch during the return match against Eindhoven. He then tried to reverse a situation made delicate with the 2-0 defeat in the first leg in the Netherlands. With two goals to his name, he is in tune with a team which achieves one of its finest European exploits by dynamiting the Dutch 6-0 including three goals in the first five minutes of play.
The rest of the season, however, would not be as brilliant with a premature and humiliating elimination in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup against Borussia Mönchengladbach (1-4, 0-2). In the championship, ASSE must be content with a third place well below the stated objectives and the resources invested.
On the way to the 10th ASSE title
Platini's second season with the Greens is more successful. It is illustrated by a thunderclap in Hamburg and a 5-0 in the round of 16 first leg of the UEFA Cup, in the form of a tune-up for the former Nancy player. Upset at having been criticized with the French team against the West Germany (1-4), the number 10 from Stéphane wanted to reset the counters by scoring a vengeful double. Despite the rout against Ipswich in the next round (1-4, 1-3), he was one of the architects who allowed ASSE to win its tenth French championship title. A title which could have been accompanied by a double without a crushing defeat in the final of the French Cup against Bastia (1-2).
The prospect of playing in the European Champion Clubs' Cup for the first time may have encouraged him to sign for another year, but he still refuses to commit, in accordance with Rocher's wishes, for two years. at ASSE. He guesses the inevitable decline of the Greens.
He doesn't think he's saying that well, because the 1981-82 season was one of all regrets. Saint-Etienne was eliminated from the C1 in the preliminary round against Dynamo Berlin (1-1, 0-2). She then had to cede her French champion title on the last day of the championship despite a final last stand against Metz at Geoffroy-Guichard with a resounding victory (9-2). For his last match in the green jersey, Platini sparkled in the final of the Coupe de France against Paris SG where he scored two goals. This is not enough and ASSE must lose on penalties.
It's time for him to bow out. The club has been experiencing turbulence since the spring which will also impact it. On April 30, 1982, in the greatest secrecy, he went to Turin and agreed to sign for Juventus Turin, the Saint-Etienne club recovering compensation of 1,280,000 francs in accordance with the contract signed with the Greens. This commitment pulls the rug out from under the feet of many suitors, notably Bordeaux, whose president, Claude Bez and his sporting director, Didier Couecou, were at the Platini home at the same time hoping to convince him to sign for Gironde.
A Star towards Juventus
His career abroad was crowned with success. Despite a difficult start, he established himself in the terrible Juventus team and its six world champions. He spent five seasons there where he built up a very poor track record until then. He won two Italian championships (1984 and 1986), an Italian Cup (1983), a Cup of Cups (1984), a European Super Cup (1984), a Champions Cup (1985), a Cup Intercontinental Club Championship (1985). Only the final of the European Champion Clubs' Cup at Heysel, in the circumstances that we know, despite the victorious goal, tarnishes a remarkable career.
With the French team, the man with 72 caps and 41 goals won the European Nations Championship in 1984, scoring nine goals. A record to beat in a European final phase. However, he could not avoid a defeat in the semi-final of the 86 World Cup in Mexico. Triple golden ball (1983, 1984 and 1985), he was able in 1987, at the age of 32, to end his career and begin a brilliant reconversion.
On November 1, 1988, Platini became coach of the France team, replacing Henri Michel, sacked for poor results. Even if he failed to qualify France for the Italian World Cup, he brilliantly obtained his ticket for the European Championship in Sweden in 1992 thanks to eight matches and eight victories in the group stages with opponents like Spain and Czechoslovakia. Unfortunately, France was eliminated in the first round and he decided to resign.
Bearer of the Olympic flame at the Albertville Winter Olympics in 1992, he was involved in the organization of the 98 World Cup in France. He is co-President of the organizing committee for the 1998 World Cup with Fernand Sastre. And it’s still a success. Working alongside Joseph Blatter at FIFA, he was elected president of UEFA on January 26, 2007, a mandate he retained until 2015.
