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HEALY HONOURED BY PLATINI
UEFA President Michel Platini was at Windsor Park on Wednesday to present Northern Ireland striker David Healy with a special award in recognition of his 13 goals in the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign.
The 28-year-old scored against Liechtenstein (five); Spain (three); Sweden (two); Denmark (one); Latvia (one) and Iceland (one) – setting a new record for a European Championship qualifying series.
Healy said that he was honoured to receive the award from the UEFA President and to hold the record which was previously held by Croatia’s Davor Suker, who scored 12 goals for his country in the Euro 96 qualification campaign.
"It's a great honour to hold the record,” said Healy. “Maybe someone will break it sometime – but hopefully it will stand for another few years. Thirteen is a lot of goals in 12 games, so hopefully somebody will have to go some to break it.
“The hat-trick against Spain was the highlight. To score one against Spain was good but to score a hat-trick was great. It was a hugely entertaining campaign for the players and fans alike."
Mr Platini added: "The outstanding performance of David Healy in the qualifying competition of the European Championship and his goal tally of 13 goals is a new record and deserves to be recognised. I am sure that this record will last for some time to come and will be hard to beat.
"That is why I presented him with a special award to celebrate his fantastic achievement."
Michel Platini scored the highest number of goals in a final tournament of the European Championship with nine goals (out of the 14 scored by the French team) in 1984.
