WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Michel PLATINI
1984 top three…Michel Platini, Ian Rush and Zico
Platini is the tops
I
t has been an absolutely fantastic year for France – that is the overwhelming message of readers and contributors from all around the world who voted in World Soccer’s annual awards poll. Michel Platini won the World Footballer of the Year accolade with a record advantage over runner-up Ian Rush; France was unrivalled in the voting as World Team of the Year for their brilliant victory in the European Championship (reinforced by their Olympic success); and Michel Hidalgo, the French boss, was voted Manager of the Year. Platini, the modest millionaire of Juventus and France, can hardly pretend surprise any more at the way he has swept every award this past year. World Soccer’s World Player of the Year crown is the latest in an ever-lengthening collection and no doubt there are more to come in the next few weeks. His achievements last summer set him up in a class of his own. He took Juventus to victory in the European Cup Winners’ Cup and Italian championship, and then scored the goals and provided the inspiration with which France carried off the European Championship. Armed with this redoubtable background, Platini is now poised
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PLAYER OF THE YEAR
to launch himself towards the one major club level title which neither he nor Juventus have ever won: the European Champions’ Cup. There is perhaps no club in Europe for whom victory in the Champions’ Cup would mean so much. The fact that they have won the Italian league on a record 21 occasions and the cup a record seven times, the Cup Winners’ Cup and the UEFA Cup...all count for nothing beside the regret that they have never been Europe’s No.1. “That,” says president Giampiero Boniperti, “is the biggest prize of all. Milan have won it. Internazionale have won it. But Juventus have not. That is our goal this season.” Poland star Zbigniew Boniek even went as far as to say: “If we finish one place above the relegation zone in the league, but win the European Cup then it will have been a great season.” The man who carries most responsibility is Platini. He has been playing in Italy for two seasons now and both times he has been the league’s leading scorer. In 1983 he also inspired Juventus to reach the Champions’’ Cup final – where they lost surprisingly 1-0 to Hamburg – and last season of course he overthrew Diego Maradona as the world’s top player with his displays for France. Platini says he will quit the European scene for some easy money in the United States after the next World Cup in 1986. His ambition to win the European Cup is a great one and he has admitted that this season could prove his best – and perhaps last – chance. Platini knows all about the physical danger he runs against ruthless opponents who will do almost anything to try to stop him. Born in June 1955, he had barely made his first-team debut with Nancy-Lorraine at the age of 17 when he was hacked down from behind. The outcome: Platini was carried off with a broken leg.
1984
Hat-trick hero…Platini stars against Belgium at Euro ’84
