Italian footballer Paolo Rossi, hero of the 1982 World Cup won by Italy, has died at 64, his widow and the Italian media have announced. His wife, Federica Cappelletti, announced his death on Instagram, posting a photo of the couple with the caption “Forever,” followed by a heart. “There will never be someone like you, unique, special,” she also wrote on Facebook. The news of his death was picked up on the night from Wednesday to Thursday by the Italian media, which immediately paid tribute to the legendary Italian striker nicknamed “Pablito”. “Paolo Rossi, the amiable football poet who made the joy of all Italy in 1982 is dead”, underlines on its site the daily newspaper Il Corriere della Sera, which evokes the “incurable disease” from which he suffered. He was “the man who made Brazil cry and took the Azzurri de Bearzot to conquer the World Cup,” reports La Repubblica for its part.
“A part of us went with him, a part of my life goes with him,” commented his former 1982 world champion teammate FulvioCollovati. “Paolo Rossi made us proud to be Italian, he was a hero for all. Serie A mourns an immortal of our football, loved by the whole world,” reacted Serie A president Paolo Dal Pino. The news of Rossi’s death comes less than two weeks after Argentine legend Diego Maradona won the 1986 World Cup. Paolo Rossi, who shouldn’t have played the 1982 World Cup, eventually became the hero with six goals and one triumph. Suspended for three years in March 1980 in the “Totonero”, a case of scandal of rigged football matches and illegal bets in Italy, he had however been summoned for the 1982 World Cup in Spain, after a reduction of his sanction, despite the skepticism of the press and the tifosi. In the “Mundial”, Rossi explodes with a hat-trick during a legendary Italy-Brazil (3-2) which eliminates the Seleçao and sends the Azzurri to the semi-finals. Against Poland, he offered himself a double and a place in the final. In this final match against the FRG, the Tuscan scored the first of three Italian goals (3-1).
Italy wins its 3rd World Cup, Rossi finishes best player and scorer. And the Ballon d’Or crowns this exceptional year. His club career is more mixed. Unearthed as a teenager by the recruiters of Juventus, his first bianconere years are tarnished by three injuries to a meniscus. Top scorer in Serie B with 21 goals and climb to Serie A: with LanerossiVicenza, joined in 1976, he experienced his first successes. The following season, his club titillates Juventus for the scudetto and he finishes again “capocannoniere” (24 goals). Juventus then tries to recover it, in vain. After a last season and a relegation with Vicenza, he left for Perugia, where his passage was turned upside down by the Totonero. Two years of suspension later, Rossi returns to Juve. The 1983-84 season was synonymous with a climax for Rossi, forming a formidable trio with Platini and Boniek and accumulating trophies: Serie A, Italian Cup, Cup of Cups, and European Supercup. In 1985, the “Old Lady” won the Champions Clubs Cup in the appalling Heysel final and its 39 deaths, which was Rossi’s last match with the Bianconeri.
He goes to rival AC Milan. Handicapped by injuries, his Milan episode was a failure. Just like the one at Hellas Verona. In 1987, Rossi decided to turn the page at the age of 31 after nearly 400 league games, 154 goals and 48 caps (20 goals).
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