Luís Carlos Almada Soares (born 16 April 1986), commonly known as Platini, is a Cape Verdean professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a winger. He spent five years of his professional career in Portugal in addition to playing in seven other countries, and chose his name in honour of

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

international

Michel Platini Michel François Platini (; born 21 June 1955) is a French association football, football Administrator (business), administrator and former player and manager. Regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, Platini won the Ballon d'O ...

. Platini made his international debut for

Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

in 2012, and represented the country at two

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is s ...

tournaments.

Club career

Portugal

Born in

Praia Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde.Sporting Clube da Praia Sporting Clube da Praia, short form: Sporting Praia ( Capeverdean Crioulo, ALUPEC or ALUPEK as well as Badiu: ''Sporting Klubi di Praia'') is a professional football club that plays in the Santiago South Premier Division in Cape Verde. It is ...

, making his debut in 2006. He moved to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

in 2008, joining

Associação Académica de Coimbra The Associação Académica de Coimbra (AAC) is the students' union of the University of Coimbra (UC). Founded in Coimbra on November 3, 1887, it is the oldest students' union in Portugal. It is also the biggest Portuguese students' union belongin ...

. Platini never appeared officially for the Students, who loaned him to two

Portuguese Second Division Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

clubs in consecutive seasons, G.D. Tourizense and

Sertanense FC Sertanense Futebol Clube (), formerly Sertanense Foot-ball Club, is a Portuguese football club based in Sertã. Founded in 1934, it currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, holding home games at ''Campo de Jogos Dr. Marques dos Santos''. ...

. In the summer of 2010 he signed a three-year contract with C.D. Santa Clara of the Segunda Liga, appearing in 19 games for the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

team in his first year, 11 as a substitute; one of his two goals came on 31 October 2010, in a 2–0 home win against

C.F. Os Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses (), commonly known as Os Belenenses or simply Belenenses, is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 19,856 ...

Later years

On 22 June 2013, Platini joined

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

side

AC Omonia Athletic Club Omonia Nicosia (; ''Athlitikós Sýllogos Omónoia Lefkosías''), commonly known as Omonia Nicosia, or simply Omonia (also Romanization of Greek, transliterated as Omonoia), is a Cyprus, Cypriot professional multi-sport club, esta ...

. In July of the following year, he signed for two seasons with

PFC CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First Professional Football League, First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ' ...

from Bulgaria. He returned to Africa to play for Egypt's

Al Ittihad Alexandria Club Al Ittihad Alexandria Club (), locally known as El Ittihad El Skandary, is an Egyptian sports club based in Alexandria. The club is mainly known for its professional football team, which currently plays in the Egyptian Premier League, the high ...

, but left in January 2016 alleging that he had not been paid for five months. In the summer of 2017, after ending his contract with

Dibba Al-Hisn Sports Club Dibba Al-Hisn (, ''white Dibba'') is a List of enclaves and exclaves#Subnational pene-enclaves/exclaves (inaccessible districts), pene-exclave of the emirate of Sharjah (emirate), Al-Sharjah, one of the seven United Arab Emirates. It is bordered ...

from the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

, Platini moved to

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n club

CSM Politehnica Iași CSM may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'', a collection of medieval Galician-Portuguese vernacular songs and poems in praise of the Virgin Mary * Chaos Space Marines, in the ''Warhammer 40,000'' fictional universe * ...

on a two-year deal. On 26 October, he scored the only goal in the 1–0 victory over

FC Steaua București Fotbal Club FCSB (), formerly named and still sometimes referred to as FC Steaua București, is a Romanian professional Association football, football club based in Bucharest. It has spent its entire history in the Liga I, the top flight of th ...

. Platini agreed to a one-year contract with

Sanat Naft Abadan F.C. Sanat Naft Abadan Football Club (, ''Bāshgāh-e Futbāl-e San'at Naft-e Ābādān'') is an Iranian Association football, football club based in Abadan, Iran, Abadan, Iran. They currently play in the Azadegan League after being relegated from th ...

of the

Iran Pro League The Persian Gulf Pro League (, ''Lig-e Bartar-e Xalij-e Fârs''), formerly known as the Iran Premier League (, ''Lig-e bartar-e Irân''), is a professional association football league in Iran and the highest level of the Iranian football league s ...

on 29 June 2018. He played their first five matches of the season, then returned to Iași in September.

International career

Platini made his debut for

in 2012. He scored the Blue Sharks' first goal in the

2013 Africa Cup of Nations The 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the Orange S.A., Orange Africa Cup of Nations South Africa 2013 for sponsorship reasons, held from 19 January to 10 February 2013, was the 29th Africa Cup of Nations, the Association football, footbal ...

– also a first-ever in the tournament – opening the scoring in the 1–1 draw against

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

Career statistics

International

International goals

(Cape Verde score listed first, score column indicates score after each Platini goal)

Honours

Sporting Praia * Cape Verdean Championship:

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

Santiago South Premier Division The Santiago South Premier Division is a regional championship played in Santiago Island, Cape Verde and is a part of the Santiago South Zone Football Association. The winner of the championship plays in Cape Verdean football Championships of ea ...

: 2007–08

References

External links