In the run-up to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, The National’s Gary Meenaghan looks back at the figures of World Cups past who, while not necessarily the greatest the game has ever seen, were among football’s most interesting characters.
PAOLO ROSSI
The Italian was relatively weak, had a poor shot and no particular burst of pace. Yet what he lacked in power, he made up for in positioning. The supreme poacher, he is remembered as the man who fought back from a two-year suspension to take his country to the 1982 World Cup title.
Converting
Rossi’s role as one of Italy’s most revered forwards never looked likely in his early years. A slight frame saw him start as a winger and he was forced to have three knee operations before his 19th birthday. After switching to centre forward, goals started to flow – 60 in 94 games – as he helped Vicenza win promotion. A year later, in 1978, he became the first player to top-score in Serie B and Serie A in successive seasons.
Totonero
Two years after claiming three goals and four assists at the 1978 World Cup, Rossi was embroiled in Italy’s “Totonero” match-fixing scandal and banned from playing for three years, later reduced to two. To this day, he proclaims his innocence. “All of a sudden the universe, where for a long time I was seen as a [hero], revolted against me, stabbing me in the back with an erroneous and cowardly judgment,” he wrote in his autobiography, I Made Brazil Cry.
Giant Killer
Rossi returned in 1982, but Italian fans were unimpressed when Enzo Bearzot included him in the squad for that year’s World Cup. Desperately unfit, the Juventus forward was awful, lacking confidence and going four games without a goal. But when Italy met a Brazil team many thought were merely awaiting coronation, Rossi netted a hat-trick as the Europeans beat Socrates, Zico and Co 3-2.
The Other Hat-trick
Rossi scored two more goals in the 1982 World Cup semi-final and opened the scoring in Italy’s triumphant 3-1 win over West Germany in the final. He finished the tournament with the Golden Ball, the Golden Boot and his hands on the coveted golden trophy. Only Garrincha and Mario Kempes have completed such a feat.
That’s What He Said
“The most important goal was the first one,” Rossi once said of his 1982 campaign. “It’s worth three times all the other goals because it was what I needed to regain confidence. From then on everything changed. The first goal against Brazil was probably the most important goal of my entire career.”
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