This is the time of year when the calendar inevitably prompts a moment of reflection, and never more so than in this "end of millennium" December. In that context, I have recently found myself thinking about the last 15 years of daily football coverage in Italy and, in particular, two of the greatest players it has been my privilege to watch - Frenchman Michel Platini and Argentine Diego Maradona.
In these days when Premiership sides such as Arsenal, Chelsea and reigning European champions Manchester United play European opposition on a weekly basis, thanks to the new format Champions League, followers of English soccer cannot help but be at least partially informed about the best of Spanish, Italian, German, French, Dutch etc clubs. Back in the mid-1980s, it was very different with the Hysel Ban meaning that the average English (and Irish) fan saw little or nothing of what was happening beyond the cliffs of Dover.
As far as Italian soccer was concerned, that was a pity. The mid-1980s represented a rare moment of transitory grace when some splendid, swashbuckling stars graced the Italian stage (Zico, Falcao, Passarella, Van Basten, Gullit, Brady), players whose sheer skill and class made it easy to accept Italian soccer's self-proclaimed billing of "the best football championship in the world". Of them all, however, it is Platini and Maradona who remain fire-branded into the memory.
Fans worldwide, at least those over a certain age, will recall Platini all too well from his remarkable performances for France at the World Cups in 1982 and 1 986, not to mention his key role in France's 1984 European Championship win. There is little need to remind readers of his great ability.
All of that can still be seen and admired on videotape. What I recall about Platini is his style. I well remember standing in the Juventus dressing-room at the Olympic Stadium in Rome as Platini gave a laconic, post-match interview. Smoking a cigarette, wearing an expensive cashmere overcoat and doused with designer after-shave, Platini looked on us journalists with a sophisticated mixture of pity, contempt and indifference.
His answers to our questions were always polite but often only barely concealed his belief that, on a good day, the better soccer journalist manages to understand a maximum two per cent of what is happening in a professional soccer match. By the way, over the years in Italy, it has come to my notice that Platini is not alone amongst top level players who have a low opinion of soccer-writers.
Platini's adroit handling of the media and his consummate style, on and off the pitch, made it obvious even then that this was a footballer for whom there would be life after football. Now 13 years after his retirement, it is no surprise to find him fulfilling the role of international PR cum trouble-shooter for FIFA, after a post-soccer career in which he has already proved himself a successful national team manager (taking France to the Euro '92 finals in Sweden), not to mention TV commentator and entrepreneur.
It would have been hard to imagine a player more diametrically contrasting, on and off the field, to Platini than Diego Maradona, the little genius with whom Platini shared the Italian limelight. Platini was the reserved and charming Frenchman, able to use his political savvy to protect himself and his family from the turbulence of life at the top in Italian soccer. Maradona was the poor boy from the "barrio", used, abused and manipulated by a clan of agents and friends who collectively failed to protect him from drug addiction.
Platini's greatest vice was his devotion to cigarettes. However, such was his savvy that he was rarely, if ever, photographed with a cigarette in his mouth during his years in Italy. Maradona's vices ranged from womanising to cocaine addiction and towards the end of his career in Italy he made international headlines for both.
While Platini retired quietly, sipping a glass of champagne in the Juventus dressing-room at the old Stadio Communale in Turin one Sunday in May 1987, Maradona had to abscond from Italy late one night in April 1991, leaving behind him a series of unresolved charges ranging from a positive dope test after a Serie A game to a paternity suit.
What, of course, united Maradona and Platini was their outstanding talent. Like Platini, Maradona the footballer will never be forgotten thanks to the videotape. Just look again at his marvellous second goal against England in 1986.
If Platini was footballing intelligence personified, Maradona was footballing genius as pure instinct. Such was his outrageous talent that he rarely disappointed when one made the journey down to Naples to see him play. His relationship to the ball, his close control, his absurd sense of balance (given his lack of height, he was like a subbuteo player who simply popped up again when tackled by an opponent), and his shooting ability were all breathtaking.
What made Maradona a truly great player was his ability to put all of those qualities at the service of a Napoli team that had been built, exclusively for and around him - successfully, too, given that Napoli won two Italian titles and a UEFA Cup with him, having won nothing significant before or since (Napoli now languish in Serie B, Division Two).
For Platini and Maradona and the privilege of having watched them on a weekly basis, I give thanks. Here's hoping that the Rivaldos and Ronaldos can take up where Platini and Maradona left off.
