Paolo Rossi – An Obituary
Former Italy striker Paolo Rossi passed away on Wednesday at the age of 64. He was best remembered for his hat-trick for Italy against Brazil at the 1982 World Cup, in a game that many describe as the greatest World Cup match of all-time. I will be writing about this match in a separate article so will not go into further details about this game.
Paolo Rossi became the first player to win the top goalscorer award in Serie B and
Serie A the following season after two hugely successful seasons with Vicenza.
Over the course of his career, he won the Serie B with Vicenza. With Juventus, he won Serie A twice as well as the Coppa Italia, European Cup, European Cup Winners Cup and European Super Cup.
Rossi was called up to the Italy squad for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, where he scored three goals and made four assists. These were the first of 20 goals in 48 appearances for the Azzurri. This prompted Juventus to sign him outright for a world-record fee.
Two years later, Rossi was involved in a match-fixing scandal when on loan to Perugia and was banned from the game for three years. This was later reduced to two years and he was called up to the Italian national team for the World Cup.
1982 was the defining year in Rossi’s career. He won the World Cup, the Player of the Tournament and the Golden Boot and the Ballon D’or. He was largely anonymous in his first three appearances in the group stages matches in the tournament, but soon came to form after his Italian side qualified for the Second Round.
A hat-trick against Brazil was followed by two goals in the Semi Final victory over Poland and the opening goal in the victory Final against West Germany.
Rossi scored a total of 134 goals in 338 club matches for Vicenza, Perugia, Juventus, AC Milan and Verona. He also scored 20 goals in 48 appearances for the Azzurri between 1977 and 1986.
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