1982 World Cup Hero and Ballon d'Or winner: legendary Italian footballer Paolo Rossi dies

The legendary Italian footballer, the hero of the 1982 World Cup, Paolo Rossi, died on December 9 at the age of 65.

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, the cause of death was lung cancer.

The first to announce the departure and life of the former Juventus and Milan striker was his wife Federica Cappelletti.

She posted a joint photo on Instagram with the caption "Forever".

A little later, the tragic news was confirmed by the presenter of the RAI Sport TV channel Enrico Varriale, where Rossi had recently worked as an expert.

“Very sad news: Paolo Rossi has left us.

The unforgettable Pablito, who made us all fall in love that summer of 1982, and in recent years has been a valuable and competent workmate at RAI.

Rest in peace, dear Paolo, ”wrote Varriale on Twitter.

The future idol of Italian fans and winner of the Golden Ball was born in 1956 in Prato.

In his youth, Rossi was noticed by the Juventus scouts and offered him his first professional contract.

But the beginning of his football career turned out to be extremely unsuccessful - due to constant injuries, the striker spent only three matches in the Italian Cup in three years.

A short loan at Como also did not bring him success, and soon Rossi became a player of Vicenza in Serie B.

But it was there, in the second-strongest division of the Italian championship, that Rossi finally revealed himself.

In his first full season, he scored 21 goals and became the tournament's top scorer, while helping the team return to the elite.

In Serie A, Vicenza immediately moved up to second place, behind only Juventus.

In many ways, this was again the merit of Rossi, who had 24 goals in the asset.

With his phenomenal performance, the player immediately earned a trip to the World Cup in Argentina.

Together with Roberto Bettega and Franco Causio, Rossi formed a powerful attacking triangle that terrified opponents.

Italy then won all three matches of the first group stage, but in the next stage drew with Germany and lost to the Netherlands.

In the match for third place, Squadra Azzurra lost to Brazil and finished fourth.

Rossi scored three goals in the entire tournament and eventually won the Silver Ball as the second best player in the World Cup.

While Rossi played in the World Cup, a dispute unfolded behind him between Juventus and Vicenza over the ownership of the player.

Both clubs fought for the top star in Italy and agreed that the full rights will be received by the one who offers the largest amount.

Vicenza really wanted to keep the player to participate in European competitions and paid 2.6 billion lire for half of the contract, making Rossi the most expensive player in the world at that time.

But from that moment on, the striker began a streak of failures.

Although he scored 15 goals in the next Italian championship, Vicenza dropped back into Serie B and Rossi went on loan to Perugia to continue playing in the top flight.

In 1980, a huge match-fixing scandal broke out in Italy, and Rossi became one of his defendants.

He himself did not admit any guilt, and the court sided with him, but the Italian Football Federation still disqualified the striker for three years.

But after Italy took fourth place at home Euro 1980, the term was reduced by two years.

Rossi only returned to football at the end of the 1981/82 season.

By that time, he had already become a Juventus player.

The striker managed to play only three matches and scored one goal, but became the champion of Italy and soon received a call to the World Cup in Spain, which was a big surprise for the fans.

Rossi was no longer perceived as a big star and was criticized for his poor form.

But the head coach of Italy, Enzo Bearzot believed in the striker and released him on the field, although in the first three matches he never scored a single goal, and the team barely made it into the second round with three draws.

Rossi did not distinguish himself in the next stage, when it was time to meet with the reigning world champion Argentina, for which Diego Maradona played.

But Italy was able to win this match and continued to fight for the title.

To reach the semifinals, she needed to beat Brazil, and then Rossi finally showed himself.

He scored a hat-trick, scoring for the first time already in the fifth minute.

Although the Brazilians attacked very actively, they were able to respond with just two balls.

In the semifinals, Rossi once again single-handedly decided the outcome of the match - his double brought victory over Poland.

In the decisive match against West Germany, he opened an account for the third time in a row and helped Italy win the World Cup for the first time since 1938.

Rossi also became the top scorer and was voted the best player in the tournament.

Before him, only the Brazilian Garrinche in 1962 and the Argentinean Mario Kempes in 1978 succeeded, since then no one else has achieved this.

In 1982, Rossi also won the Ballon d'Or.

After the World Cup, Russia finally achieved success at the club level.

He spent three seasons at Juventus and was part of the famous trio with Michel Platini and Zbigniew Bonek.

Together they won the Italian Championship, the Italian Cup, the Cup Winners' Cup, the UEFA Super Cup, and in 1985 brought the Turin club their first European Cup win.

After that, Rossi spent one season at Milan and Hellas Verona and ended his career in 1987. A year earlier, he also played his last match with the Italian national team. Rossi was included in the 1986 World Cup, but never entered the field due to injuries and poor health at high altitude. Rossi has scored 134 club-level goals and 20 for the national team, including nine at the World Championships. For this he will be remembered as one of the brightest Italian footballers.