"Everything was intuitive, the way I met and hit the ball and then dropping to my knees,” said David Platt back in 2010 about his famous volley for England against Belgium at the 1990 World Cup. “Instinct just took over. I'd never ever dropped to my knees after scoring before, I don't know why I did."
It was a moment that not only allowed England to advance through to the quarter-final in the last minute of extra time, but changed everything for this ordinary man from Chadderton. After a youth career with Manchester United that ultimately came to nothing, he joined Crewe Alexandra in 1985 under the tutelage of Dario Gradi.
The coach would go on to launch the careers of many other international players, but Platt has certainly been the most successful of his former employees. From there the midfielder joined Aston Villa three years later, and his performances there would catch the eye of England manager Bobby Robson.
It was not until November 1989, that he received his first international call-up with the World Cup looming, and Robson opted to include him in the final squad of 22 players that travelled to Italy. Named on the bench for all of England’s opening matches, Platt was brought on during extra time in the first knockout round with Belgium.
We all know what happened next. Replays of that goal have been shown ever since, the enormity of what just happened most telling on Gary Lineker’s face as he jumps onto the pile of players that mobbed Platt in the aftermath. Without that goal the Englishman could well have continued his career path on home soil – like so many others before and since – but instead he embarked on a journey that was anything but ordinary.
After a further year with Villa following the World Cup, it was on this day in 1991 that David Platt moved to Italy, but his move was not to one of the giants of Serie A. Instead Apulian side Bari, located in the South of the country were the ones who came calling, with the fee an astonishing €5.5m. That broke the British transfer record at the time, and even the player himself acknowledges that it was his match-winning strike against Belgium that had changed the course of history for him.
“If I hadn’t scored that goal, I might still have ended up playing in Italy, but realistically, I’m sure it was the catalyst,” he admitted in the same 2010 interview. “Italian clubs were looking for international names and, before that goal, I was only really known as a club player with Aston Villa.’’
He wasn’t the first Englishman to have pulled on the Bari shirt however, as Gordon Cowans and Paul Rideout made the move together from Aston Villa back in 1985. That duo spent three years with the Galletti, but Platt had shrewdly insisted on a clause in his contract that allowed him to leave the club should another Italian team come in with a bid.
This meant that his stay at Bari would be short-lived and – despite scoring an impressive 11 goals in 29 games – Platt could not prevent their relegation to Serie B in the impressive but oversized Stadio San Nicola that was purpose built for the 1990 World Cup.
The following summer he would secure his move to one of Italy’s elite clubs, joining Juventus for €6.5m, but would once again only spend one year in the given destination, leaving for Sampdoria in summer 1993. It was here that he would enjoy a more settled spell, his two-year stint with the Blucerchiati rounding off a four-year period in Italy that would culminate in a return to England with Arsenal in 1995.
He returned to more familiar shores equipped with knowledge that so many others had failed to gain during their time on the peninsula. David Platt had quickly learned the language and benefited from their superior tactical thinking, making him one of England’s greatest ever success stories over in Italy. And it all started with a truly unforgettable goal.
