Luis Fernandez remains for history the fourth member of the famous magic square of the France team, alongside Michel Platini, Alain Giresse and Jean Tigana. “Probably the least talented of the four”by his own admission. But within a midfielder focused on attack, the native of Tarifa brought something else and in particular his roughness, his grinta.
The successive departures of his three friends, in the wake of the 1986 World Cup marked by the unforgettable qualification for the quarter-finals against Brazil and by the penalty shootout transformed by the one who forever remained the “little guy” of Thierry Rolland, were nevertheless difficult to digest. And all the more so since the Blues must also deal with the doubts surrounding the rest of Luis Fernandez’s career. Consequence of his serious knee injury while playing for Racing.
A Euro 1992 with a bitter taste…
After two major operations, Luis Fernandez finally returned to the field with AS Cannes and found the Blues during a friendly match against Hungary in March 1990. With a well-known face on the bench: Michel Platini. If the new stars of the team are called Eric Cantona and Jean-Pierre Papin and if the armband is worn by Manuel Amoros, the only other survivor of Euro 1984, the former electrician is a key piece in midfield.
The French team flies through qualifying for Euro 1992 and has a string of victories. Enough to make the Blues one of the favorites during the final phase in Sweden. However, Michel Platini’s troops stalled in the group stage, unable to win a single match with two draws against Sweden and England and a defeat against Denmark. Starting the first match against the host country, Luis Fernandez had to settle for a substitute place against the Three Lions and did not come into play in the third match. At 32 years old and after a decade in the French team, the former Parisian called it quits after 60 caps.
