platonic relationship between a guy and a girl

Tweet

A recent article mentioned that any close relationship between a guy and a girl starts with a degree of attraction to either party. From my personal experiences, I have also seen many cases of a so called 'close friendship' between a guy and girl turn into some form of one-sided relationship (of course I don't deny that there are also the beautiful couples which emerge from being friends). That same article also mentioned that females who have an aesthetic advantage have a higher tendency to have 'close guy friends'. So how true is the statement that 'for a close relationship to develop, there must be a degree of attraction'? Can a truly platonic relationship exist between a guy and a girl?