#10 Michel Platini

 

#10 Michel Platini (France) - three-time Ballon d'Or winner

French football legend Michel Platini (#10) led his country to their first international tournament win in 1984.

Michel Platini has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in recent years, in what has been a sad downfall for France's Player of the Century. For all his reported off-field wrongs with UEFA, Platini remains arguably the greatest goalscoring midfielder in the game's history.

He scored nine goals in five games to lead France to Euro' 84 glory, their first-ever triumph at an international football tournament. Platini was named the Player of the Tournament. That triumph came during a wonderful run that also saw Platini win three consecutive Ballon d'Or titles (1983-85).

The two-time French Player of the Year's club career was just as successful as his stint with Les Bleus. Platini's scoring record of 104 goals in 223 appearances with Juventus put many strikers of his era to shame.

He remarkably won three straight Capocannoniere awards with Juventus,at a time when the Italian top flight boasted the toughest defenders in the game. If that wasn't enough, Platini scored the winner in the 1985 European Cup final against Liverpool. He drew the curtains on his club career with two Serie A titles, a Ligue 1 triumph with St-Etienne and an Intercontinental Cup win.

Zinedine Zidane, who finished just behind Michel Platini in the voting for France's Player of the Century, had this to say about the Juventus legend:

"When I was a kid and played with my friends, I always chose to be Platini. I let my friends share the names of my other idols between themselves."