Paolo Rossi

Paolo Rossi is a former Italian football player who featured during the 1970s and 1980s and won the 1982 World Cup. He played as a striker and is regarded as an Italian football legend. He was named by Pele in March 2004 as one of the 125 greatest living footballers.

Paolo Rossi commenced his professional club football career at modest Italian side Como in 1976 and subsequently went onto play for Vicenza between 1976 and 1979. He led Vicenza to promotion to the Italian Serie A in the 1976-1977 season. The next season he hit 24 goals to become the only player to topscore in the Serie B and the Serie A in two successive seasons. He was later loaned out to Perugia between 1979 and 1981 and it was there that he was embroiled in a disasterous scandal, known as the Totonero. He was originally banned for three years but the ban was later reduced to two years.

Paolo Rossi featured for Italian powerhouse Juventus between 1982 and 1985 and scored 24 goals in 83 league matches and subsequently went onto feature for AC Milan and Hellas Verona. He won one Scudetto, one Italian Cup, one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, one European Cup and one UEFA Super Cup with Italy.

Paolo Rossi is best remembered for his performance at the 1982 World Cup finals in which he displayed a truly great performance to lead Italy to the title. He actually made his international debut for Italy in 1977 and featured at the 1978 World Cup finals. He scord six goals in the competition and won the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball award, besides winning the World Cup title. He made a total of 48 international matches for his nation and scored 20 goals.