Michel Platini
From the May 2008 issue
“It’s not that I regarded myself as the best player in the world; I was the best player in the world,” Michel Platini tells FFT over a cup of tea at UEFA’s Lake Geneva headquarters. “What else do you want me to say?!” Well, since you mention it Michel, how about answering a few questions from our readers? And the Gallic maestro needed no further invitation… But then Platini has never been shy about expressing with his views on the state of the game.
Now – as Europe’s football supremo – he has the platform to bring his vision to bear. Elected UEFA President in January 2007, the Frenchman is embarking on a mission to protect the game he loves from becoming a business asset. Some might say that’s mission impossible, but then Platini is, by his own admission, a man who doesn’t accept defeat lightly.
He is also a man with the Midas touch: the three times Ballon d’Or winner, won honours galore with Juve, captained France to the European Championship title in 1984, coached them in 1992, and then went on to organise of one of the slickest World Cups in recent memory in 1998. Taking time out from his latest grand venture, the 51-year-old recalls how the prospect of playing on Boxing Day put him off a move to North London, why losing to the Germans was his greatest moment in football and why the Premiership’s plans for an international roadshow must never be allowed to happen.
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This interview is part of FourFourTwo Legends: The Interviews, a special magazine collating interviews with 24 icons of the game: for more details, see David Hall's blog How Pele taught me to be the Editor of FourFourTwo.
FourFourTwo Legends: The Interviews is available from all
good newsagents from Dec 1 to Feb 12, and we'll be giving issues away
every day from Dec 1 to Dec 24 on our competitions page.