Month: April 2022

Debut. One out, another in – even before the old greatness exits. Platini was still playing when Paul Ince made his debut in the 1986-87 season.
Born in 1967, the midfielder debuted for the club he was the product of – West Ham United. It was natural – his talent was already noticed during his progress in the youth system of ‘the Hammers’, so barely 20-years old it was time to start playing professionally. A great talent, but also a talent of the current times and their understanding and demands. If Platini debuted 18-years old and even that was a bit late, for he came to professional club from a smaller one, Ince was thought still too young and fragile at 20 – that was the difference between 1972 and 1986. Careful with the youngsters – they were not ready for professional clash with full grown men and may burn out. Too young to trust them, but then if not playing them, they will never be ready and burn out by inaction. 20 years seems agreeable risk, 18 – not at all. Unlike Platini Ince was physically strong and fit, a born fighter. The rest was also different – Ince was a product of the 1980s football – hard worker, a team player, good overall, but not exceptionally skillful and imaginative. Not a free artist, surely. Of course, all that was not immediately clear or even important – at the time, he was just a youngster who made his strong debut. He was ‘the Gov’ner’ yet, that came years later, but his debut was fine, thus an important stepping stone not just for his own career.
Trademark gestures and success will come soon, though. Paul Ince debuted on November 30th, 1986 against Newcastle United. West Ham lost 0-4… hardly the day to remember.

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 2nd 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 begining 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 the 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
Juvenus – 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 Juventis’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 shamefull viscious 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.

Group 5. Holland, Hungary, Poland, Greece, Cyprus. Something strange here… a revival of Holland was already noticed after 1984, but by itself it was not enough to place them in urn 1, the urn of the favourites: Holland failed to qualify to both 1984 Euro and 1986 World Cup. Yet, they were in among the mightiest and Italy – among the so-so teams in urn 4… Meantime Hungary was so-so and Poland in decline. Since past shapes the present, Holland was cautiously seen as a favourite, but also cautiously Poland and Hungary were pretenders… anything could happen. At least before the games started. Greek football was rising, but for the moment the most Greece was able of was giving troubles to the stronger teams and perhaps messing up their plans. Cyprus… the usual outsider. What was imagined as rather tough and unpredictable group crushed such illusions right away – Holland was really coming back with vengeance and Poland and Hungary were really less than supposed to be. Of course, not everything was smooth: Poland gave the fright to the Dutch with their blatantly defensive football in Amsterdam – Holland dominated the match by far, but it ended 0-0. Then a few months later Greece did the same – 1-1 in Amsterdam. And at this point – March 25, 1987 – the group was suddenly truer than the expected: Greece was leading the table! The great rivalry between the three favourites was going to cost them dearly – the underdog sneaked unnoticed. Rather, noticed… Hungary had issues with the lost game against Greece in Athens – from Polish standpoint, the Hungarians had to blame only themselves. However, it was tit for that – usually the home team won, so 4 teams just shuffled positions depending on the latest result. Everything ended at the end of the schedule: on October 19th, 1987, when the four teams played at the same time. Greece, still on top of the table, visited Hungary in Budapest. Poland hosted Holland. Now everything fell into the right position – Greece fought as much as they could, but lost 3-2. Poland was really too weak for the new Dutch and lost at home 0-2. Right after that came a farce… Holland won at home 8-0 against Cyprus. Nothing wrong with the result itself – and Holland actually needed only a tie to win the group – but hoolliganism popped-up its ugly head: a Dutch supporter hurled smoke-bomb or cracker which exploded next to the Cypriot goalkeeper and he fell down. Really injured or not, the referee stopped the game, the keeper was carried out on a stretcher and the whole Cypriot team left the field. In the next 56 minutes the President of the Dutch Federation tried to persuade the Cypriots to come back and finish the game. Eventually, he succeeded and the Cyprus came back with substitute keeper to whom 7 of the 8 Dutch goals were scored. But even if the Cypriots decided not to file protest the incident was noted and recorded and a month later UEFA issued its verdict: the game was annulled and Cyprus was awarded 3-0 victory. Holland immediately appealed this decision. The basis of their appeal was the very unclear decision of the Luxembourg referee to stop the game – according to the Dutch, he did it right away, so it least their leaving the field was only following his order. Referee’s version was different – he decided to stop the game because the Cyrpiots already left the field. All that shifted the blame to the Cypriots and new verdict for a replay of the match on neutral ground was issued near the end of November. This infuriated the Greeks, whose only hope for qualification laid on awarded victory to Cyprus and heroic win in the last group match in which they hosted Holland – now this scheme was out and in retaliation they changed the venue of the match with Holland from Athens to tiny stadium in the city of Alexandropoulis at the Turkish border. UEFA reacted with big threats and Greece had to abandon this idea, but still without giving up – the new proposal was in Rodos Island and they also announced that they will field their Olympic team because this match is of no importance to anybody now. This time UEFA accepted the Greek proposal and one may wonder why… Well, the game really did not mattered any more – that was certain. In the replay Holland won 4-0 and soon after both Greece and Holland met with substitute squads and Holland won 3-0. It was mere formality anyway, but Holland was the last team to qualify to the 1988 finals.
Cyprus – last, as expected. 0 1 7 3-16 1 point.

Poland – 4th. It was a fact: this was very inferior team compared to the one of 1974. Having chance to win the group was only that – a chance, much depending on stumbles of others. 3 2 3 9-11 8 points.
Hungary – 3rd. Like the photo of Poland, this is picture of their home game against Holland – which, like Poland, they lost, 0-1. This sums it all – the real class showed in direct games and in them chance was not a factor. 4 0 4 13-11 8 points.
Greece – 2nd. Here chance worked in their favour – to the point of entertaining hopes for winning the group. But depending on chance was not enough… 4 1 3 12-13 9 points.
Holland won. Top row from left: Ruud Gullit, Adri van Tiggelen, Addick Koot, Ronald Spelbos, Frank Rijkaard.
Middle row: Marco van Basten, Ronald Koeman, Sjaak Troost, Erwin Koeman, John Bosman.
Sitting: John van ‘t Schip, Sonny Silooy, Joop Hiele, Rinus Michels, Hans van Breukelen, Jan Wouters, Michel Valcke.
Well, this is the squad in 1987 and everything seems done – Holland was back with new great team. As usual, coming back from decline is not just an explosion, but rather long and shaky process, step by step. Really, the Dutch team started playing with comfort in 1987, but the shaky beginning of the campaign did not look so shaky at the end: 6 2 0 15-1 14 points.
Group 6. Denmark, Wells, Czechoslovakia, Finland. Denmark was considered favourite, with slight possibility of Wells or, likelier, Czechoslovakia challenging the Danes. May be, just in case, just to stay on the safe side, if something surprising happened… Nothing happened – Wells was Wells, with its limited resources they had no chance; like many other countries, Czechoslovakia was in decline during the 1980s, now even losing to Finland (0-3 in Helsinki), Finland was getting better somewhat, but may be only because others were weaker now, and Denmark, although having difficulties in scoring goals, was better the the others and fulfilled the predictions. However, they had to thank the Fins – Czechoslovakia lost only one match and that was to the Fins – if they managed different outcome, Denmark was going to be second. Then again, if the outcome in Helsinki was different, nay be other results – particularly those between Czechoslovakia and Denmark (0-0 and 1-1) may have been differed too.
Finland – 4th. Modest, but brave. 1 1 4 4-10 3 points.
Wales – 3rd. What can you say? Pity Jan Rush… However, they do not give up, which is admirable. 2 2 2 7-5 6 points.

Czechoslovakia – 2nd. They had a chance to win, but, frankly, such a team did not deserve to win. Of course, some good players here – but also many not so good. That was all Czechoslovakia had at hand at that time – nothing like the 1960s and 70s, when there was plenty of talent. In the 80s there was simply not enough. 2 3 1 7-5 7 points.
Denmark qualified to the Euro finals. The 1980s was their decade – great generation. Small, but wonderful. Aging already, but very experienced and as every small squad there was the advantage of players knowing each other inside out. Given their limited resources, one can understand why they struggled occasionally – especially against relatively modest, but decent teams. Yet, they deserved to reach the finals and not just because they were everybody’s darlings. 3 2 1 4-2 8 points.
Group 7. Belgium, Bulgaria, Eire, Scotland, Luxembourg. The most uncertain and unpredictable group – except Luxembourg, anybody could win. The relative parity came from the decline of Belgium, having its own great team aged and stars retiring, the decline of Scotland, having fewer and fewer really great players in recent years, on one hand. On the other hand, Bulgaria had routinely underperformimg talent, which was pretty much enough to fight successfully current Belgians and Scots, and the Irish fought bravely no matter what. No team was particularly great, but that was a matter of a draw and not their fault – an iron group was formed, so here was really difficult to make predictions. Belgium had great World Cup in 1986, but it was already clear that it was the swansong of a generation stepping down, so it was dangerous to think of them as favourites – highly possible was that goal-difference could be the decisive factor at the end, so suddenly the matches with Luxembourg became of almost crucial importance – very likely who scored the most against the eternal outsiders would win. However, none of the candidates was a high scoring team, especially when playing against punching begs… And caution was justified right from the start of the campaign – Scotland-Bulgaria 0-0 and Belgium-Eire 2-2. Then Belgium seemingly made the most important step – scored goals. Luxembourg-Belgium 0-6. At the same time Eire-Scotland ended 0-0. Nobody lost chances, everybody planned and schemed hopefully. Scotland-Luxembourg 3-0, Belgium-Bulgaria 1-1. Scotland-Eire 0-1, Bulgaria-Eire 2-1, Belgium-Scotland 4-1. Now it looked like Belgium was getting ahead, but nobody was out of the race yet. Eire-Belgium 0-0, Luxembourg-Bulgaria 1-4. Bulgaria-Luxembourg 3-0, Luxembourg-Eire 0-2, Eire-Luxembourg 2-1. Looked like Eire lost the race thanks to their small wins against the outsider and the main race will be between Belgium and Bulgaria. Bulgaria-Belgium 2-0 and Bulgaria not only killed the Belgian advantage, but gained best chances to qualify – especially after the next match in which Scotland won over Belgium 2-0. But then Eire won against Bulgaria 3-0 and everything was back at square one. Kind of… Scotland was out, Belgium was out, Eire was on top with 11 points, but finished their games already and was on the mercy of others. Looked like Bulgaria will be the group winner – they had their last game at home against already eliminated Scotland and needed only a point. Playing for the ‘sure point’ in such situations is stupid, because there is no plan B, but, as many other times, Bulgaria made the stupid decision and even forget that they had to face British team – the Scots had nothing to play for, they will take it easy, we will be a bit careful in defence, will kill time without attacking too much so not to accidentally anger and invigorate the Scots, done deal! A terrible mistake – British teams never take it easy or give up. Scotland came to Sofia to fight and shortly before the end of the game scored. And won 1-0. There was still one more game in the group and this time Scotland took it easy – and gave a point to Luxembourg at home. One has to read British teams much better than the Bulgarians did…
Luxembourg – last as ever. Only they were not the expected decisive factor of the group, but not their fault. 0 1 7 2-23 1 point.
Scotland – 4th. Not in good shape, surely, but they became the decisive factor of the group – first killing the chance of Belgium, second – those of Bulgaria. If anything, they played with heart… just about everything Scottish football had at the moment. A very long moment, unfortunately, seeming without end. 3 3 2 7-5 9 points.
Belgium – 3rd. This squad was from the early months, when they appeared to be on the right track (4-1 at home against Scotland). From left to right: Stephane Demol, Philippe Desmet, Nico Claesen, Erwin Vandenbergh, Franky van der Elst, Georges Grun, Enzo Scifo,  Leo Clijsters, Frank Vercauteren, Patrick Vervoort, Jean-Marie Pfaff. To a point, the inevitable decline is shown here – how long those players can play ? Decline in terms of the great team which emerged in 1980. From bigger perspective – nothing really terrible : Belgium always managed to come back with small group of good players. They were not Italy or West Germany with huge pool of talent and had to do with little – and little had crucial moments when in need of replacement. Scotland gave them good chance, Scotland took it away… 3 3 2 16-8 9 points.
Bulgaria – 2nd. Another failure, coming right after disappointing World Cup finals. A long list of objections to coach (the same Christo Mladenov, whp spoiled the 1974 World Cup finals), selection, attitude can be made – and it was made back then in Bulgaria in the aftermath of the shocking loss from Scotland – but what is perhaps the really important lesson of this failed campaign is about the stupidity of scheming and calculating. Playing for a ‘sure point’ against British team… 4 2 2 12-6 10 points.

Eire – or Republic of Ireland, the winners. This is the squad which tied Belgium in Brussels at the beginning of the qualifications. Pretty much all Ireland had – not much, but playing with big hearts. Lady Luck helped them – disguised as Scotland, which in way qualified the Irish by eliminating in two strokes Belgium and Bulgaria. Yet one can dismiss the Irish as just lucky team – they were modest, their tactics were considered primitive, they had only a handful of decent players, their bets known stars – Frank Stapleton and Liam Brady – were dangerously aging, but these boys gave the best they could, sometimes even more than that. In a way, Eire deserved most to win, because with them at least one thing was sure – they will give their best at the finals. Declining Belgium and rather Scotland were suspect about meaningful performance in 1988 and Bulgaria… well, it had history of pathetic performances at big finals, so better without them. In any case modest Irish lost only once in the ‘iron group’, which was recommendation in itself. 4 3 1 10-5 11 points.