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The Italian was a center forward, although he never wanted to be. The goals of Italy won the World Cup in Spain in 1982. Of triumphs and the shadow of a liberator.
Paolo Rossi in the 1982 World Cup semifinals after one of his two goals to beat Poland 2-0.
Photo: (Keystone)
“Uno di noi”, say the Italians, one of us. In every way. Even his name: Paolo Rossi, a familiar name. It is perhaps even the most common name combination in Italian. But this Paolo Rossi from Prato, near Florence, born in 1956, carried the Spanish version of his Christian name with him throughout his adult life. As a single point of sale. As a happy reminiscence of one of the happiest and easiest moments of the Italian postwar period.
«Pablito» Rossi.
Now, the hero of the Azzurri in the 1982 World Cup in Spain, center forward and top scorer of the tournament with six goals, has died of cancer, and «La Repubblica» writes: «He has forever engraved his little original name in football history . “At least the Italian.
Wood as defender
Rossi was always more national than club player, an eternal fiancé of the republic. Juventus Turin took the thin boy to the youth academy from the beginning, but then did not believe in his potential and pushed him, first to Como, then to Vicenza, where he went from the wing to the center of the offensive department and grew, an intuition of his coach at the time. . Much later, Rossi would say that he never wanted to be a center forward. There were times when the defenders were still heavily wooded, and Rossi was fast and technically talented, but also light, delicate, a hit for swordsmen. If he managed to become one of the best in the role, it was because of his exceptional sense for a very short period of time and his keen eye for the gap in the opposing defensive ranks. “Rossi was a clandestine in the penalty area,” writes Mario Sconcerti. “He learned to hide because he had no physique, he always surprised everyone, he stole a meter from them and he was Tor.”
After Vicenza he moved to Perugia, from provincial club to provincial club, and there he fell into a hole that almost swallowed him forever. In 1980 his name appeared in the investigation of the “Totonero”, the great gambling scandal in Italian football: it featured players, agents and club leaders from Serie A and Serie B, who manipulated the matches to get rich. There wasn’t much evidence against Rossi, just a short meeting, two minutes, with one of the brains. The republican civil judiciary considered that the evidence was too scarce and acquitted him. But the sports justice sanctioned Paolo Rossi for two full years. Everything seemed to be over, his good performance at the 78 World Cup in Argentina? Covered in shame.
Rossi must always affirm that he was innocent, the victim of a mistake. He shouldn’t have earned a lira with the “Totonero”, gang members also said they only saw him once with the wrong person to talk to. But now it had a stigma. If Rossi really hadn’t been guilty of anything wrong, Rossi could at least have reported the machinations.
“I owe him everything.”
Only Enzo Bearzot, the legendary pipe technical commissary, stayed true to his center forward. The coach met with Rossi, interrogated him as if it were an interrogation, was convinced of his innocence and then waited for the suspension to end to mobilize him for the World Cup in Spain. Straight out of exile, it doesn’t fit at all. “I owe him everything,” Rossi said once.
Bearzot’s review was great. It only got on a hot summer day in Barcelona, in the old stadium of the Sarrià district, Italy against Brazil. Probably the whole world went to the Brazilians, who burst in as refreshingly and naively as a playful children’s team. That was not the best cure for Italians. Paolo Rossi scored all three goals. 3: 2. They were goals like judgment, inexorable, triumphs of opportunism.
“I made Brazil cry”, that’s what his memoirs are called. Some time later, Rossi participated in a friendly match in Brazil. After the first half he had to be replaced, it was a protective measure: the spectators had thrown everything at him, bottles, coins, eggs.
Pioneer to world title
The victory over Brazil in the World Cup should be condensed into a myth, it led the Italians to the title. Rossi also scored the first goal of the final against Germany in a 3-1 victory at the Bernabéu. The wonderful celebration of Marco Tardelli’s goal after the second goal, that liberation journey through half a stadium, remains in the mind. But of course, Italy won thanks to “Pablito”, thanks to the goals “alla Paolo Rossi”. This term has been consolidated, it represents great stolen goals, somehow twisted, that nobody saw coming the second before, without defense, without goalkeeper. For Italy, the victory was a respite, a rare moment of levity: the country has been ravaged by the terror of the red and neo-fascist organizations for years. The leaden era, broke for a brief moment.
Rossi scores 1-0 in the 1982 World Cup final against Germany. In the end, Italy became world champion thanks to a 3-1 victory.
Photo: Action-Images
Rossi received the Ballon d’Or for the best soccer player in the world. From dust to stars, completely unexpected. Then he played for Juve, Milan and Verona. But only: they were vegetables for a career in the national blue, the only color that was really important to him. He only made 48 international matches, but some dug into the collective memory of Italians.
He quit when he was 30 years old. His knees were bruised and he had had meniscus surgery three times. He became a television commentator and appeared on all of them: Rai, Mediaset, Sky. And since he never took himself too seriously and shared that delicately sarcastic Tuscan joke, he was always popular. He remarried and became a father three more times, as a grandfather. Rossi bought an entire village with houses in the interior of Arezzo, which he turned into an “agriturismo”, a large country inn. That was his favorite place.
Some time ago he went to the doctor with back pain. A herniated disc? A consequence of the race? The doctor found a lung tumor. His wife posted the death notice, a photo of the couple and a dedication on Instagram: “Per semper.” Always. One say noi.
