Juventus legend Michel Platini spoke about his former team’s title hopes and why he’s not a fan of the new 32-team Champions League. Speaking with La Gazzetta dello Sport, Le Roi touched on the changes in Turin this summer, and why he thinks Kenan Yildiz should play more centrally for the Bianconeri:
And now with his number 10 jersey there is a nineteen-year-old boy who promises wonders.
“Pardon?”
Yildiz debuted in the league with the 10. He played a great game.
“I didn’t know about the number 10 jersey, mine, Baggio’s, Del Piero’s, Dybala’s. Beautiful. If they gave it to him and he wanted it means he has personality. I wish him all the best for the good of Juve and football. May he be a 10 like me, a creative, one of those who invents. May he be inspired by Bellingham, Messi, Zidane, I can’t say by me because he hasn’t seen me play, he wasn’t born… And stay in the center.”
In theory he should stay on the wing, but with Como he played like Platini…
“Then Motta is a connoisseur of football. I know him, he was at PSG, good player, intelligent man. Wherever he went he did well. Right to bet on him. He likes offensive and spectacular football. The right coach to manage this transition and start a winning and young cycle.”
Scudetto right away?
“Calm down, a child always wants to win, but a bit of alternation is good for football. I know that four years without a Scudetto are many, but it also happened after me. Then you go back to winning. Juve has realized it cannot compete with Real, City, PSG, it no longer has the means of Arabic and other owners, so it must create a great collective. Today sporting directors are as important as coaches.”
Juve have signed Thuram, but there’s no more Rabiot and it’s unlikely we see Pogba.
“At Nice Thuram was elegant, great physique, good technique and values that his father Lilian passed on to him. Rabiot is a good player, physical and technical, his cycle was over. For Pogba I don’t know what to say, he was the nice image, everyone loved him, charismatic. Seen from afar it’s a shame and a great sorrow.”
There is great anticipation for Vlahovic.
“The destiny of center forwards is one, as happened to Trezeguet. If you score you’re a phenomenon, if you don’t score they criticize you.”
You were betting a lot on Allegri, weren’t you?
“Yes, but I fear he didn’t have the right players.”
Has Juve ever called you, even for advice?
“No, never.”
What do you think of Andrea Agnelli?
“Maybe he behaved a bit like a fan. I was very happy about the Family’s return to Juve. I know John Elkann little: the future will depend on his love for Juve.”
Juve is in the new 36-team Champions League.
“Yes, but I don’t like it. The beautiful one was with 32 with groups, but Ceferin gave in to the clubs.”
Was the Super League better?
“No, but one day, I don’t know if in five or twenty years, there will be. The clubs were all in agreement, remember? They will agree again. And the Court has said that the UEFA and FIFA monopoly is over. Everything started with Bosman: I don’t like it, but it’s there now.”
Also with FIFA your relationships are at zero.
“Infantino had said he would wait for me, ‘when Michel returns I’ll leave him the place’, then FIFA sued me criminally. I was out of football, I couldn’t even be the president’s driver. Do you know what I went through unjustly?”
The Super League is far from your idea of football for everyone, from your more open Champions League.
“I know, but I would have talked with the clubs.”
Anyway then Real always wins…
“Ah, great Carletto! He always wins even without playing well. Now he also has Mbappé with Vinicius and Bellingham.”
Who is the strongest?
“There are no more Messi and Ronaldo, while Mbappé and Haaland are strikers. I’m for Bellingham, he resembles me, a 10 who scores and plays all over the field. Let him take the place of De Bruyne and Modric. Rodri is more Pirlo. Such a player is for those who love football. Today I watch the players more than the coaches, I look for the beautiful technical gesture. I saw an ugly European Championship, I only liked Spain, but with two wingers, without a 10. There are no more schools and variety and everyone plays like Pep. There were dribbling and defenses, man against man and fast actions. Now everything is the same. Pep does well but adapts to his high quality players. The others want to do it without the same quality. I feel a bit of boredom. Today defenders are evaluated for their good feet, not if they know how to defend: the game needs real defenders. And enough with three marking midfielders.”
Do you think back to your Juve?
“I think back to when Boniperti summoned me and Zibì and we told him: ‘Why didn’t he leave us where we were, if we have to play where we don’t know?’ From the next day everything changed and Juve was born. I agree with Zibì: if we had won in Athens against Hamburg we would have taken three in a row.”
France also played badly.
“True. Badly. Now there’s Italy, right?”
Yes: do you see it hard for us?
“Eh, we are the Brazilians of the past, for twenty years the strongest. You no longer have great players. Two World Cups at home are too many. But poor Spalletti: a good coach without good players doesn’t win.”
A coach you like?
“Conte. Very good. I know Napoli has started badly, but let him work.”
Fonseca has arrived at Milan.
“He was at Lille, he played nice football, the modern one, offensive, like all coaches today.”
Simone Inzaghi won the Scudetto with Inter.
“If you win you’re the strongest. Inter is a beautiful team. But Juventus friends tell me they have a lot of debts.”
You’ve always liked Mourinho…
“I admit to having a passion for his personality. I really liked Porto, he has always been faithful to his personality for better or worse. He’s a character who has done good for football.”
Are you afraid of Saudi Arabia?
“Well, it does what you did in Italy in the 80s. You took all the best. It was a different championship, I know, but how can a player give up all that money? Impossible. And then Arabia defeated Argentina at the World Cup, right?”
