Death of Bernard Lacombe: Michel Platini mourns the loss of a "monument of French football"

The former French national team playmaker shared his emotion on Wednesday following the death of his former French team-mate, Bernard Lacombe, on Tuesday.

Michel Platini, captain of the French team that won European championship in 1984, alongside Bernard Lacombe, who died on Tuesday, June 17 at the age of 72 , mourns "a companion" of ten years and "a monument of French football" , he explained to AFP on Wednesday, June 18.

"Bernard was above all a companion. For ten years, he was the center forward of the French team, our center forward. We are a small group who mourn his departure today," declared the former iconic playmaker of the Blues. Bernard was a monument in French football and then a monument for Olympique Lyonnais, because it was he who, with Jean-Michel Aulas, made Lyon a great club, a club that he spent his life loving, having played there, coached there, managed there," continued Michel Platini.

"He was the French center forward of the 70s and 80s ," the former UEFA boss emphasized. "Along with Delio Onnis and Carlos Bianchi, they were the three center forwards who scored the goals and the spirits, what Bernard did is enormous." Between 1969 and 1987, the striker scored 255 times in the league, making him the top French scorer in the history of the first division. In 38 caps, he also scored 12 goals.

"I didn't have the intimacy with Bernard that Alain Giresse had because they were in a room together for 10 years. It was Alain who called me yesterday [Tuesday] to tell me the news. But he was someone we loved and we are all suffering today, Alain perhaps even more so, because he was practically his brother ," Platini described even more personally. "I remember the battles fought on the ground that have marked the history of my life. Bernard is part of this history," he concluded.