World Cup FRANCE 98 – Press Releases

Paris, 10 June 1997

365 days to go: FRANCE 98 right on target!

One year to the day before the 16th FIFA Football World Cup kick-off, Ronaldo and Michel Platini celebrated “the beautiful game” in Paris, by way of a unique free-kick.

Ronaldo, centre-forward for the reigning World champion Brazil, and voted by FIFA the world’s best player in 1996, teamed up with Michel Platini, Co-president of the French Organising Committee for the World Cup with Fernand Sastre, at the Parc des Princes, to stage a symbolic one-off goal.

Ronaldo, kitted out in his green and gold Brazilian strip, had the task of guiding a free-kick past Michel Platini, who had swapped his President’s get up for a pair of FRANCE 98 goalkeeping gloves for the occasion.

The wall, made up of eight young footballers sporting the legend “D-365” (365 days to go) on their jerseys, represented the five continents which will all be competing in France, from 10 June to 12 July 1998, in a World Cup comprising, for the first time ever, no less than 32 teams.

The perfectly-struck free-kick ended up right in the back of the net, decked out in the FRANCE 98 colours – a fitting reminder that the last World Cup of the century is to be an occasion for excitement, universality and sharing.