Paolo Rossi
| ● The file | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1956, Prato, Italy |
| Golden Ball | 1982 — World champion & top scorer in the same year |
| The ban | Two years out, vindicated within three weeks |
| The week | Hat-trick vs Brazil, brace vs Poland, opener in the final |
Rossi entered the 1982 World Cup having played almost no football for two years, his ban for a betting scandal expiring weeks before the tournament. Italy's manager kept faith in a striker who seemed broken; for four matches the faith looked absurd — Rossi moving like a man carrying luggage. Then, in the space of a week, he scored six goals: a hat-trick to eliminate Brazil's greatest team, two to break Poland, and the first in the final against West Germany. World champion, tournament top scorer, Ballon d'Or: the award has never had a more improbable trajectory.
His club career — Juventus, and the miracle of Vicenza's rise — was respectable; his legend is a single golden summer, and that is enough. Rossi's 1982 remains football's standing argument that the game is written in narrative, not statistics: form is temporary, and destiny occasionally files a late application.