Jacques Vendroux with Julien Moreau / Photo credit: FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
modified to
2:41 p.m., May 03, 2023
50 years ago, on May 2, 1973, the legendary Michel Platini played his first professional football match at the age of 17. Half a century later, the French midfielder, with 72 selections for the France team, remembers this great day at the microphone of “Europe 1 Sport”.
On May 2, 1973, at the Stade Marcel-Picot, AS Nancy Lorraine hosted Nîmes Olympique, vice-champion of France in title and fourth in the Division at the time of the match. The Nancy, fifth, can make a big splash by beating their opponents of the day and taking fourth place from Nîmes. Michel Mézy and Jean-Pierre Adams, French internationals, are impatiently awaiting the match and are counting on the Nancy striker, Antoine Kuszwoski, to make the difference.
From beginnings to 17 years old
But the striker is injured and his natural replacement, a 17-year-old player, will make his debut in D1 after several matches with the B team where he impresses the staff of AS Nancy. This young player is Michel Platini. Since the start of the season, the future Ballon d’Or waxes the bench and occupies the place of 12th man. “I was already 12th man, a month after my arrival in Nancy. It was during a match against Valenciennes. At the time, there was only one 12th man for sure on the bench. Then I had been 12th again against Marseille, Marseille de Bosquier, Carnus, Skoblar and Trésor, so I expected one day or another, as soon as there was possibly an injury, to be called up. in the Nancy team”, recalls the former candidate for the presidency of Fifa who testifies exclusively in Europe 1 Sport (every evening from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. live on Europe 1).
Too shy when first met
His debut with the Thistles, Michel Platini has vague memories of it, but he is sure of one thing: his performance against Nîmes was not thunderous. “It was my first match. I was 17. I watched the match in the newspaper L’Équipe. I think I’m only mentioned in the team composition, which means that I hadn’t been very brilliant. I then saw a paper from my dad who had written an article in Charbon rouge, Nancy’s newspaper. He had said ‘Michel had been too shy that day'”.