Euro Icons - 1984: Michel Platini's one-man demolition job

Imagine a right boot changing the face of the European Championship, forever. While you could debate the most impactful individual at the World Cup finals and make a compelling case for Pelé, Diego Maradona or Franz Beckenbauer depending on your mood, there is one outstanding candidate for the equivalent person at the Euros.

Michel Platini has appeared in many guises at the European Championship. Most recently he was the Uefa President who oversaw the expansion of the tournament to 24 teams for the 2016 edition in France, but he was exiled from the game in disgrace a year before it started when ethics violations led to FIFA slapping him with an eight-year ban from football. In 1992 he had been the manager of France, guiding the team through a perfect qualifying campaign of eight straight victories before the team bombed out in the first round in Sweden. Yet the main reason that Platini has greater synonymity with the European Championship than any other figure in its history is due to a summer of stunning performances as their captain when France hosted the tournament in 1984.

As a 16-year old it didn’t appear that Platini would even make it as far as the professional game in France. Suspected heart problems almost nixed his career before it could get going. "I went to Metz for two days of trials," he recalled in an interview with FourFourTwo in 2008, "and it was hot, they worked us hard, and I wasn’t very strong. After the trial they did these cardiovascular tests, and because I was tired and not used to so much hard work, my heart was going like the clappers. So, they sent me off to Nancy for some more tests and there they even said it was so dangerous I should give up sport altogether!"

The diagnosis was faulty, and it would be Metz’s enormous loss. Platini signed for his local team AS Nancy, where his father Aldo had played, and quickly blossomed into an exceptional attacking midfielder with a keen eye for goal. After completing his national service while there and playing for France at the 1976 Olympics, Platini was soon called up to the full national team. The 23-year old quickly became a key player for manager Michel Hidalgo and was influential in the 1978 World Cup, when France were unfortunate to be eliminated in the first round.

After 127 goals in seven seasons for AS Nancy, Platini transferred to Saint-Étienne in 1979, where the freakish scoring rate continued. He bagged 82 in the following three seasons, and St Etienne won Ligue 1 in 1980-81. Even accounting for taking all free-kicks and penalties, his strike-rate of around one in two from midfield was outstanding in that era. Platini was technically excellent with both feet, and in the air. The accuracy of shooting was exceptional, as were his late, unannounced arrivals into the penalty area. By his mid-twenties he had blossomed into one of the most complete midfielders in Europe.

The Netherlands found out first-hand. A sumptuous free-kick from Platini against them in Paris in 1981 effectively qualified France for the World Cup at their expense. It was also a symbolic passing of the baton. The Dutch had been the most stylish and beautiful European side of the seventies, and France would take that responsibility forwards in the new decade. After conceding a goal after 27 seconds in their opening match with England at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, France quickly recovered to become one of the more eye-catching teams. It was a run that ended in heart-breaking circumstances in the semi-finals. As flamboyant as they were going forwards, their midfield was imbalanced; West Germany overpowered them as France blew a 3-1 lead in extra-time and then lost on penalties in one of the World Cup’s all-time classics.

Platini was the gamebreaker in the French midfield, while Alain Giresse was the architect and his Bordeaux team-mate Jean Tigana was the box-to-box ball carrier. What they needed was a steadying and more selfless talent to allow them all to fully flourish. Paris St Germain’s defensive midfielder Luis Fernández made his debut for France a few months after the World Cup, and would prove to be the solution. They started as a quartet for the first time against England at the beginning of 1984, gelling so instantly and beautifully that in unison they became known as the carré magique (Magic Square).

As good as all four were individually and collectively over the following years, there was little doubt over who was applying the stardust. West Germany might have broken Platini’s heart in 1982 but he was about to supplant their captain, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, as the dominant player in Europe. Platini transferred to Juventus after the 1982 World Cup and spent the next four years winning almost every major domestic and international club honour in the game. Individually he was capocannoniere (top scorer) in Italy and the Ballon d’Or winner in 1983, 1984 and 1985. Right in the middle of this glut of amazing form came the 1984 European Championship.

France were the hosts and making their first appearance at the finals since they had staged the inaugural tournament in 1960. With their magic square established and with a formidable cornerstone in Platini, big things were expected. France entered the finals on a run of five victories in a row. "They are worthy favourites," wrote Patrick Barclay in his preview for The Guardian, "a delightfully smooth side, almost certainly the best in Europe."

In the group stages Platini was sensational. Their first match, and the opening game of the tournament, was against Denmark in Paris. The Danes were a rising force in international football. In the qualifiers they had eliminated England and they had walloped France 3-1 in Copenhagen in September 1983, a performance the watching England manager Bobby Robson described as "chilling". They were top-heavy with attacking talent, like Allan Simonsen, Preben Elkjær and Michael Laudrup, but also knew they knew they had to try and shackle Platini. That thankless task was given to their midfielder Klaus Berggreen.

"He was fantastic," says Berggreen of Platini. "What I learned from that match was that his movement was always diagonal, moving that way he could always keep me behind him. He was so intelligent in the way he moved. I think that was the best tournament he ever played, he was so strong…and he was also f*****g lucky." That luck manifested itself in the 78th minute. Berggreen left Platini’s side for a moment but lost the ball when trying to carry it upfield. Giresse latched onto the loose ball and it eventually found a now free Platini, whose bobbling shot clipped off a defender to wrongfoot Danish goalkeeper Ole Qvist and trickle into the net to give France the victory.

There was no luck involved in the remaining French group games, in which Platini scored two perfect hat-tricks. The first came in a 5-0 drubbing of Belgium in Nantes, the second in an exceptional 18-minute spell in a 3-2 victory over Yugoslavia in Saint-Étienne. The last of those strikes involved a technique that had become his trademark, a clipped free kick over the defensive wall and into the corner of the goal. It was a skill he had honed with endless practice in training, using a wooden mannequin of players as the barrier he had to beat to score. That level of dedication had elevated him above his peers.

No one was more aware of that than Platini. "It’s not that I regarded myself as the best player in the world," he told FourFourTwo. "I was the best player in the world. What else do you want me to say?! I was full of confidence in myself: I knew I could run the game; I knew I could score goals." Platini was an enigmatic character. He was languid and a heavy smoker off the pitch, as well as a mischievous prankster in the dressing room.

During matches he was intense and brooding, putting an incredible demand on his colleagues. Such was his talent, convincing team-mates to buy into his leadership was not difficult. Like all the great captains, he led by example; and like all of the genuinely great players, he had an innate sense of timing. Never was that more evident than in France’s next match at Euro 84.

For the 1984 edition of the tournament UEFA had restored the semi-final stage, a decision they would soon be thankful for. Both were enthralling, and the semi-final between France and Portugal in the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille was one of the greatest matches in the history of the tournament. There is something special about those evening kick-offs in Southern Europe in June; they begin in daylight and end what feels like deep into the night, but with a residual heat that gives the game an invisible mist of intensity. On 23 June 1984, the French public lived on the edge of their nerves in that atmosphere for two unforgettable hours.

France’s left-back Jean-François Domergue put them in front after 25 minutes by smashing a free-kick into the top corner. From there Fernández, Platini, Giresse and forward Didier Six either spurned chances or saw them saved by the excellent Manuel Bento in the Portuguese goal. With 15 minutes left France paid for it, when Rui Jordão headed in an equaliser. Bento then turned a Didier Six shot onto the bar before the game went into extra-time. During the first period Portugal played their best football of the game and Jordão struck again, hitting a shot into the ground at the back post that top-span wildly over goalkeeper Joël Bats and into the far corner. But for a superb save by Bats from Nené minutes later, France would have been out.

With six minutes to go, the hosts summoned up one final, monumental effort. Domergue found Platini in the Portuguese area, who then hit the deck and appealed for a penalty. Before anyone could react Domergue nixed any debate by prodding the loose ball past Bento to make it 2-2. With one minute to go, and the prospect of a penalty shootout just two years after having their hearts broken by West Germany via that very mechanism, Fernández picked up the ball and found Tigana free in the Portuguese half.

Tigana was what Hidalgo referred to as the heartbeat of the French team. He drove at the Portuguese defence and tried to slide a through pass to Platini. It was intercepted, but Tigana picked up the loose ball and surged into the right side of the Portuguese penalty area. He then cut the ball back to the edge of the six-yard box, where Platini had managed to find some space. Surrounded by a panicking Portuguese defence and amid the din of a baying home crowd, Platini’s veins were coursing with ice. He took one touch to coolly set himself before lifting his shot over Bento to give France the lead for good.

That goal, and the eruption of joy in the Stade Vélodrome thereafter, is one of the most memorable moments in the history of the European Championship. The BBC’s commentary by John Motson is legendary. "Tigana again," he begins. "Tigana…Tigana…Platini…GOAL! Platini for France! With a minute to go! It’s 3-2! I’ve not seen a match like this in years!" The printed words scarcely do it justice. The listing of surnames of whichever French player was on the ball at the time was evidence of a man completely transfixed by what he was witnessing. When Motson then abandoned his usual style of calm and calculated relaying of information for the climactic exclamation of ‘GOAL!’ it told you everything about the enormity of the moment. Platini had rescued France from the prospect of penalties and secured their place in the final.

Their opponents in the final would be Spain, who had arrived there after an extraordinary run of results that began in the qualifiers. Spain needed to beat Malta by eleven goals to reach Euro 84 at the expense of the Netherlands and managed an incredible 12-1 victory in Seville, despite being locked at 1-1 after 25 minutes. They then made it out of Group 2 in France with a flying header from Antonio Maceda that secured a stunning 1-0 victory over West Germany. That eliminated the champions and led to the resignation of their manager Jupp Derwall a few days later.

In the semi-finals Spain seemed certain to lose to Denmark, who had wowed the Continent with stunning victories over Yugoslavia and Belgium to reach the knockout stages. The Danes took the lead after just seven minutes, but Spain battled back to equalise. Despite being outplayed, the Spanish took the game to extra-time and then penalties. Elkjær ballooned Denmark’s fifth penalty over the bar before Manuel Sarabia converted his to put Spain through.

The final in Paris was almost inevitably anti-climactic, with both teams trying to overcome the emotional and physical fallout from their matches just days earlier. When France broke through in the second half the source was inevitably their captain, but it was due to a horrific mistake. Platini’s low, curling free kick squirmed almost guiltily under the body of Spanish goalkeeper Luis Arconada in the 57th minute to put the hosts ahead.

France had to survive the final five minutes with ten men after Yvon Le Roux was sent off. In the very last of those five, Tigana broke forward yet again and slid a pass through to forward Bruno Bellone, who was clear on goal. Bellone calmly chipped Arconada to make it 2-0, and it was over. France had won Euro 84, a victory that felt long overdue. The nation that had done more than any other to foster international competition in European football had finally won one of the tournaments they had invented. It had been 57 years since Henri Delauney, the then President of the French Football Federation, had first suggested an international competition for European nations. In Paris, Platini lifted the trophy that carried his name.

Bellone’s goal in the last minute of that final was the first by a French forward in the whole competition. Hidalgo had tried various front combinations of Bellone, Six, Bernard Lacombe and Dominique Rocheteau during the tournament, but ended up relying heavily on his captain to decide the matches. Platini’s nine goals in the tournament remain a record, both for one championship and in its whole history. The latter record is shared with Cristiano Ronaldo, who needed four tournaments to match that total.

Platini’s glorious summer of 1984 is unquestionably the greatest one-man performance in the history of the finals. It was built into a team performance that made France the most memorable winners since West Germany in 1972 and one of the finest champions in the history of the tournament. In the calendar year of 1984 the French won all twelve of their internationals, scoring twenty-seven goals and conceding just four. Platini was the focal point of one of the most joyous, freewheeling international sides of the modern era, all powered by one of the greatest midfields ever assembled. "It was a complete team, with a nice playing system," he reflected. "We had to play good football to win games. If we didn’t play good football, we didn’t win, because we didn’t have a team capable of sitting back, defending, and looking for the counterattack. But we had eleven players who expressed themselves and had good technique. It was a different kind of football in those days, and I loved it."

It was the high watermark of Platini’s playing career. He scored the winning goal in the European Cup final against Liverpool at Heysel Stadium a year later, but it was a game that should never have gone ahead after crowd trouble caused the deaths of 39 fans prior to kick off. At the 1986 World Cup the French team won the third of their great triumvirate of matches by beating Brazil on penalties in Guadalajara, with Platini scoring in normal time on his 31st birthday. They then lost the semi-final to West Germany, and eventually finished third. Platini returned from professional football a year later. It had been a brilliant career. When FIFA banned him from all football activity in 2015 for accepting a disloyal payment of two million dollars from Sepp Blatter, it made it all the greater a height to fall from.

In 1984, his contribution for France had breathed new life into the European Championship after the lack of interest at the tournament in Italy just four years earlier. The organisation of the tournament had been excellent, the stadiums had been full, the weather had been perfect and some of the football had been spectacular. The Continent had won the battle over itself. They loved the European Championship.