Top Skipper

Before the days of satellite tv with coverage available of every league and competetion in Europe, the World Cup was the main source of exposure to foreign star players and teams.

The Argentina World Cup in 1978 was the first time I really became aware of the French team and that side had two dominating individuals, Michel Platini and their captain Marius Tresor.

Tresor stood out because he was probably one of the first black players to play for a major European country (England had none at that time) and he was such a fabulous defender, strong and dynamic always looking like he’d make that last ditch tackle and come up with the ball.

He played in all France’s games in the ‘78 and ‘82 World Cups and scored in that epic semifinal against Germany in ‘82.
65 caps for France and a pioneer for a lot of today’s French defenders, here he is leading the defence against Argentina in ‘78.