David Platt

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For the Coronation Street character, see David Platt (Coronation Street)

David Platt
Personal information
Full name	David Andrew Platt
Date of birth	June 10, 1966 (age 40)
Place of birth	Chadderton, Oldham, England
Nickname	Platty
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Retired
Youth clubs
1984-1985	Manchester United
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1985 - 1988 1988 - 1991 1991 - 1992 1992 - 1993 1993 - 1995 1995 - 1998 1999 - 2001	Crewe Alexandra Aston Villa Bari Juventus Sampdoria Arsenal Nottingham Forest	134 (56) 121 (50) 29 (11) 16 (3) 055 (17) 088 (13) 005 (1)
National team
1989 - 1996	England	062 (27)
Teams managed
1998 - 1999 1999 - 2001 2002 - 2004	Sampdoria Nottingham Forest England Under-21
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

David Andrew Platt (born June 10, 1966 in Chadderton, near Oldham, in Lancashire) is a former English footballer, who played in midfield.

[edit] Playing career

Platt was rejected by Manchester United as a youngster and allowed to join Crewe Alexandra from where he carved out a reputation as a strong-running, free-scoring midfielder. Top clubs came to look, and he eventually joined Aston Villa.

After adapting quickly to top-flight football, Platt was given his first England cap by Bobby Robson in a friendly against Italy in 1989. Although he had few caps and had shown little promise as an international footballer by the time Robson named his 22 players for the 1990 FIFA World Cup, Platt got a place due to his versatility and reliability.

Platt was on the bench for all of England's group games, but was sent on as an extra time substitute in the second round game against Belgium. He responded by scoring a memorable volley in the very last minute of the extra period - his first goal for his country - sending England into the quarter finals.

With captain Bryan Robson suffering an injury, Platt started the next game - a quarter-final tie against Cameroon - as his replacement, and scored the opening goal in a 3-2 victory. He also appeared in the semi-final against West Germany which went to a penalty shootout after finishing 1-1. Platt scored England's third penalty, but the next two were not converted and England went out of the tournament. Platt ended the competition on a personal high by scoring his third goal of the finals in a 2-1 defeat by Italy in the third place play-off.

The post-tournament hype for team-mate Paul Gascoigne meant that Platt's own outstanding World Cup was not tainted or affected by massive media reaction. He quietly settled back into his captain's role at Villa and retained his starting place in the England team, now (luckily for Platt) managed by Graham Taylor, his former manager at Villa.

Platt became England's most consistent performer of the early 1990s, scoring goals with frequency from midfield and proving an inspirational leader. He was captain for much of this period, though Tony Adams also skippered the side.

In the Euro 92 tournament, England failed to win any of their group games and crashed out, with Platt scoring their only goal of the competition in a 2-1 defeat against Sweden. The squad then failed, despite Platt's continuing drive from midfield, to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup and Taylor quit. His replacement, Terry Venables, kept Platt in his squads (indeed, Platt scored the first England goal in the Venables era) but by the time Euro 96 came round, Platt had to settle for a place on the bench, with Paul Ince and Gascoigne getting the coveted midfield roles and Adams the captaincy.

Platt appeared as a substitute in most of the Euro 96 games, and started the quarter final against Spain as Ince was suspended. In the semi-final, he once again scored in a penalty shoot-out against Germany, but equally similarly, ended up on the losing side. Platt retired from international football afterwards after 62 appearances (13 as captain) and an impressive 27 goals.

Meanwhile, his abilities as a footballer had in 1991 taken him from Aston Villa to Italy, where he successfully turned out for Bari, Juventus and Sampdoria, costing many millions of pounds in transfer fees. Arsenal then recruited him in 1995 and he finally won domestic honours in the game three years later as part of the squad which won both the FA Premier League and the FA Cup. The match David Platt is most remembered for was his 83rd minute header against Manchester United in November 1997, helping Arsenal to a 3-2 victory over their closest rivals and keeping Arsenal in the title race.

[edit] Coaching & media career

He left Arsenal afterwards to become coach of Sampdoria, a controversial stint which ended prematurely, with other clubs protesting that Platt did not have the appropriate coaching qualifications for managing in Serie A. In 1999 Platt was appointed player-coach of Nottingham Forest but this was unsuccessful, with Platt spending several million pounds on players who did not perform well and plunging the club into large sums of debt. Platt's tenure at Forest was marred by disagreements with several experienced, long-serving players, leading to them being isolated from the first-team picture and subsequently released by the club.

Platt was appointed manager of the England Under-21 side with moderate success, qualifying for the U-21 European Championships in 2002. He left this role after failing to qualify for the 2004 tournament and was succeeded by Peter Taylor. Platt is now seen as a media pundit often for England U21 matches.

He writes a regular column for Four Four Two magazine, commenting on tactics.

[edit] External links

• David Platt at the Internet Movie Database
• David Platt career stats at Soccerbase
• Photos and stats at sporting-heroes.net
• AFK Platt's Football Tactics Business

Preceded by Mark Hughes	PFA Players' Player of the Year 1990	Succeeded by Mark Hughes
Preceded by Gary Lineker	England football captain 1992-1996	Succeeded by Alan Shearer
Preceded by Ron Atkinson	Nottingham Forest manager 1999-2001	Succeeded by Paul Hart
Preceded by Howard Wilkinson	England Under-21 manager 2002-2004	Succeeded by Peter Taylor

	England squad - 1990 FIFA World Cup Fourth Place
1 Shilton | 2 Stevens | 3 Pearce | 4 Webb | 5 Walker | 6 Butcher | 7 Bryan Robson | 8 Waddle | 9 Beardsley | 10 Lineker | 11 Barnes | 12 Parker | 13 Woods | 14 Wright | 15 Dorigo | 16 McMahon | 17 Platt | 18 Hodge | 19 Gascoigne | 20 Steven | 21 Bull | 22 Beasant | Coach: Bobby Robson