Platini enchants Catanzaro at the Magna Graecia Film Festival: “Today’s football? There’s something excessive”

John

By John

“For me, football has always been fun, and it still is now that it’s frankly excessive, because you see a player every three days and you no longer have the curiosity that was there before. When I saw Pelé for the first time on TV, in the 1970 World Cup, I understood how true what everyone was saying about him was, even though I had never been able to watch him before.”

Organized by the Calabria Film Commission, the evening was characterized by flashbacks of the former footballer. From memories with his father Aldo and grandfather Francesco, to childhood legends like Kubala and his football idol Cruijff, who he actually didn’t resemble tactically. “I spent years – he added – studying my tactics. The others studied the Pythagorean Theorem, which I didn’t care about, I spent hours studying with my eyes closed the positions of everyone on the pitch, teammates and opponents, thinking about how to anticipate them without looking at the ball”. In the journey of memory, the memory of the lawyer Gianni Agnelli could not be missed, who strongly wanted him in Juve. “First – he said – I was at Saint Etienne where I landed because I didn’t go to Valencia and Inter. In ’82 the lawyer wanted me in Juventus and at the beginning it wasn’t easy. They were all world champions. The lawyer for me was fantastic. I remember that when he turned 70 I was invited and on that occasion I gave him my first Golden Ball and he asked me if it was all gold. I replied that if it had been all gold I would never have given it to him.”