A little-known Slovenian became the new president of Uefa on Wednesday after securing a landslide victory in the race to succeed the disgraced Michel Platini.

Aleksander ?eferin was elected the most powerful man in European football, beating Uefa stalwart Michael van Praag by 42 votes to 13 at an extraordinary congress in Athens.

The 48-year-old, who was only elected president of the Football Association of Slovenia in 2011, is the youngest ever Uefa president, although he is still two years older than Fifa president Gianni Infantino.

Not a household name by any means, ?eferin went from rank outsider to overwhelming favourite within a matter of months after securing support from Uefa’s small and medium-sized member associations.

In a short victory speech, he said: “It’s a great honour but, at the same time, great responsibility.  It means a lot to me. It means my family is very proud about it. My small and beautiful Slovenia is very proud about it and I hope that, one day, you will also be proud of me.”

Accused of being a puppet of new Fifa president Gianni Infantino – something both men deny – ?eferin earlier confronted doubts about his candidacy.

“Some people may have said that I’m not a leader, that I’m too young and too inexperienced to become the next Uefa president,” he said.

“Me a leader? I don’t know. I cannot declare myself a leader. It’s not because you repeat again and again loud and clear, ‘I’m a leader’, that you’re a leader. If you have to do it, you’re probably not a leader.

“Me too young and inexperienced? I don’t know. I’m almost 50 years old and I’m chairing my own company and the Football Association of Slovenia for years now.

“You can say that I’m young and inexperienced but I honestly think it’s disrespectful for all the presidents of small and medium-sized federations, who for 365 days a year have to do more with less.

“Presidents of these kinds of federations must be creative, strong and inspiring. And, believe me, we have experience.”

Billing himself as “a man of conviction, a passionate man, a man of my own and a man of his word”, he added: “I’m not a showman. I have no ego issues and I’m not a man of unrealistic promises.”

Platini earlier spoke to the congress to say farewell after being banned from football for four years.

The former France and Juventus maestro, who was once widely expected to succeed Blatter as Fifa boss, has endured a chastening year, having seen two appeals against his ban result only in reductions to his original eight-year sentence.

Platini was only allowed to address Uefa’s 55 member associations as a “gesture of humanity” from Fifa ethics committee – a concession criticised by anti-corruption campaigners, particularly as he is still under investigation by the Swiss authorities.

And there were some fears that he would use this opportunity to launch into another long defence of his record, effectively rehearsing his next appeal, but doing so before a friendly audience.

Those fears, however, were not realised, as the vast majority of his speech was a florid eulogy of football’s “beauty” and “universality”, and praise for Uefa’s work under his leadership.

“You are going to continue this wonderful mission without me, for reasons that I won’t go into,” said Platini.

“I hold no grievance against anybody who didn’t support me – everybody is entitled to their own belief. But that is not important, what is important is football.”

He then reminded the audience at Athens’ five-star Grand Resort Lagonissi of what he said when elected Uefa president for the first time in 2007.

“It is a game, rather than a product; a sport, not a market; a show, rather than a business,” he said, before referencing a quote by veteran Israeli statesman Shimon Peres that just as “Jerusalem is a flame, so is football”.