Week 47: Not Everything Has To Be Black And White
In the divisive world we currently inhabit, people tend to take extreme positions on things. It means, of course, that they can also make mistakes.
I read from someone online this morning who was still questioning whether Covid was real – maybe it needs to reach two million deaths before they’ll be convinced, and I even saw one example where someone in the UK (other than Boris and his cronies) still thought Brexit was a good idea.
But these errors of misjudgement do happen. It doesn’t mean we can’t turn things around and make up for it in the future. That thought echoed loudly last week when the news of another footballing icon passing away reached my ears.
It seems like we can’t go a fortnight in this wretched year without losing someone who has graced the game on a global stage, and so this time it was Italian Golden Boot winner from the 1982 World Cup, Paolo Rossi.
Whereas the likes of Diego Maradona, and even Big Jack Charlton, had careers that took in far more than a World Cup win – as impressive as that is – Rossi is perhaps recognised almost entirely, outside of Italy anyway, for that feat in Spain. That and his mistake; because you can’t mention his name without the words bribery and scandal coming up too after his role in one such scandal that rocked Italian football in 1980.
I have to declare a personal interest here. In the player, not the bribery. The ‘82 World Cup was my first, and therefore special anyway, but Rossi himself was a player I identified with in more ways that one. You see, during my primary school years (1976-1983), for reasons completely unrelated to football, I found myself with the nickname Ross, that not only firmly stuck but was first amended to Rossi. All my friends only referred to me as that (some still do) and I was called it by just about everyone outside of my family – even by teachers. When my sister met her boyfriend – they’ve now been happily married or more than 20 years – she said he confessed he didn’t know anything about her except that she was Rossi’s sister.
So when a certain footballer took the later stages of that ’82 World Cup by storm, wearing the Azzurri blue with a number 20 (I got that very kit the following Christmas, number included) emblazoned on the back, it did me no harm to be associated with him. Indeed, as centre-forward for my school, I had scored a hat-trick or more in ten consecutive games at the start of that football season and went on to finish with almost a hundred goals in total for my school, club and county teams that year, so felt the connection more. The bribery bit, I admit, passed me by at that age; it wasn’t something an 11-year-old had much reference about. I was certainly never offered money to throw a game. The Mafia don’t tend to get that fussed about results in the Walsall Junior Youth League.
But for Paolo Rossi, it was the sour that went with the sweetness of that summer in Spain. Although he had a glittering – if injury hampered (he only played 251 club games) – career either side of it, it’s not widely known despite few players having won as many different honours (individually and as part of a team) as he did.
Born 23 September (6 days from my birthday) in 1956 in Prato, Italy, he began his professional career at Juventus, but struggled with injuries and scored no goals in a handful of games between 1973 and 1975. It was only when he swapped black-and-white for red-and-white and went out on loan at Vicenza Calcio (then Lanerossi Vicenza), and was moved from his wing position to one of central striker, that he began to shine. Although lacking physical presence, he was incredibly astute, passed like a midfielder and had a knack for getting into the right position; his 21 goals that season won the Serie B Golden Boot and promotion. In Serie A, Rossi scored 24 times to become the first player to top the scoring charts of both divisions in successive seasons. More remarkably, Vicenza finished as runner-up in Serie A in 1977/8, behind Juventus – the club who co-owned him.
Not surprisingly, his form earned him a debut for his national side ahead of the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, where he went on to announce himself with three goals and four assists as Italy finished fourth. He was named in the Team of the Tournament, won the Silver Ball as the second-best player in the competition – despite his goal against France being his first for his country – and naturally, was a wanted man on his return.
To settle the ownership issue, Vicenza paid an astonishing figure of 2.612 billion lire for Rossi, making him – at the time – the world’s most expensive player, and Italy’s most costly sportsman ever. But despite another 15 goals, he was injured for parts of the season and his club struggled; eventually relegated back to Serie B. Rossi needed to play in the top division, so was loaned to Perugia for the 1979/80 season. It was a bitter-sweet move.
13 goals and a place in the last-16 of the UEFA Cup made him a success on the field. But off it, he became involved in Totonero, the betting scandal of 1980 that earned him a three-year ban from the game, later reduced to two on appeal. Rossi always claimed his innocence and that it was an injustice, but he nevertheless missed out on the European Championships in 1980, held in Italy.
On his return to football in 1981, he was purchased by former-club Juventus and managed to get into their team just as that season was ending (he scored once in three games) as they claimed the Serie A title. With so little game time, it was perhaps a surprise that he found a place in the 1982 World Cup squad but then the Italian team, and Rossi himself, were not considered to be in great shape going into the tournament anyway, and little was expected of them.
Given what transpired, it’s easy to forget how rubbish Italy were in Group 1. With the World Cup expanded to 24 teams – to provide spaces for developing footballing countries – there was a fear that the quality would suffer and there would be a number of one-sided thrashings. There was one, as Hungary defeated El Salvador 10-1, and the amateurs of New Zealand found it tough in the Group of Death with Brazil, Scotland and the Soviet Union, but other than that, the other lowest seeded teams coped admirably with Honduras losing only once, Algeria defeating West Germany in their opening game and Kuwait holding Czechoslovakia to a draw before losing narrowly to England.
But none performed as well as Cameroon who finished unbeaten in Italy’s group and only went out by virtue of scoring fewer goals than the eventual winners. Italy were held by Poland and then Peru, both in Vigo, before they faced the Africans in the final game. Cameroon, with a middle-aged Roger Milla starring, had also drawn against the same two opponents in Coruna. Whoever won the final game would qualify but Italy would too if it was drawn. Two goals – one for each side a minute apart – on the hour meant that happened and Italy progressed as runners-up behind Poland who found their feet, and goals, to thrash Peru 5-1. But Paolo Rossi, and Italy, had done little to suggest we should expect more from them.
As well as a larger tournament, 1982 was also one with the most convoluted of second rounds. At the time, World Cups didn’t do knockout games very much – in 1974 and 1978 the semi-finals were groups of four nations – and so, in Spain, the dozen qualifiers were put into four groups of three to find the semi-finalists. The earlier shocks had played havoc with these groups. Despite being seeds Italy, Argentina and Spain had all failed to top their first round table, so there were two groups of heavyweights and two that didn’t look as strong. England, Spain and the Germans played a turgid trio of games in Madrid with England drawing both and joining Cameroon as unbeaten losers. France emerged safely from a group with Austria and Northern Ireland while Poland saw off Belgium and the USSR in Barcelona.
The fourth group, also in Barcelona but at Espanyol’s home, should have contained Brazil as well as two from Poland, Peru, Belgium or Hungary. But instead, the favourites were joined by the holders, Argentina, and the misfiring Italians, now considered a massive underdog.
In the opening game, Claudio Gentile marked (in more ways than one) Maradona out of the game as Italy won 2-1. Then Argentina’s talisman was then sent off as Brazil beat Argentina 3-1 in the next match, setting up a winner-takes-all finale.
Brazil, full of superstars such as Zico, Socrates, Eder, Junior and Falcao were overwhelming favourites but no one told Rossi. Until this match, coach Enzo Bearzot had been forced to defend the striker’s inclusion after four games without a goal. But he took just five minutes to end the drought with a well placed header. In a whirlwind opening, chain-smoking Socrates danced through to equalise after 12 minutes before some questionable defending let Rossi in for a second. After that, Brazil dominated and pressed for the goal that would take them through and it arrived on 68 minutes, when Falcao drove past Dino Zoff from the edge of the penalty area. Surely they couldn’t let it slip again. But they did, when more poor defending from a corner saw Rossi sweep his hat-trick goal from close range. Brazil were out and the match labelled a ‘Sarrià Tragedy’ in the country, while they would go down in history as the best team not to win a World Cup.
Italy meanwhile had come good at just the right moment and Rossi scored two more in a one-sided semi-final in Barcelona against Poland; an afternoon game largely forgotten because it [bizarrely] wasn’t live on TV in the UK and was then followed by the France versus West Germany match that evening that is still regarded as one of the best games ever at a World Cup.
In the final in Madrid, Rossi wasn’t quite so influential but did score the all-important opening goal after 57 minutes, his sixth of the competition earning him the Golden Boot. Marco Tardelli and Alessandro Altobelli added further goals before a West Germany consolation late on.
After the win, his goals and performances in Spain earned him the European Footballer of the Year and World Player of the Year awards, as well as the 1982 Onze d’Or. His form and winning formula continued at Juve too, as the Old Lady won the Coppa Italia in 1983 (and lost the European Cup Final to Hamburg), the UEFA Cup-Winners-Cup and his second Scuddetto in 1984 and the European Cup itself in 1985 (in the largely forgotten final against Liverpool in the Heysel Stadium that was overshadowed by crowd violence). I managed to watch him in the flesh when he played at Villa Park for Juventus in 1983, scoring after 40-odd seconds and also hitting the post in a 2-1 win.
He went to Mexico for the World Cup in 1986, but fitness concerns at high altitude saw him lose his place before the first game against Bulgaria and he did not make an appearance as Italy bowed out to France in the first knockout round. However, his twenty goals in 48 appearances for Italy had cemented his legend. His club career wound down at first Milan, then Hellas Verona where he retired in 1987 and later went into the real estate business. He was named by none other than Pele as one of the 125 greatest players of all time. Even with the scandal attached to his name, the boy done good.
Following his death, from lung cancer at the age of 64, his funeral was attended by thousands. During it, his family home was inexplicably robbed by burglars. Maybe they made their mistake there. Maybe, like Paolo Rossi, and that person supporting Brexit, they will atone for their error and do good themselves in future.
Because bribery or not, nothing can diminish the memories I have of that summer of ’82.
From one Rossi and another…grazie.
words Darren Young, D3D4 columnist