Sport is crazy about meetings that should never have happened and which give birth to a moment of history. The out of nowhere who wins a Grand Slam tennis tournament. The repentant drug addict who redeems himself a virtue. The broken everywhere who comes back to life. The Italian footballer Paolo Rossi, who died last night at the age of 64, should not have participated in the 1982 World Cup. He was its hero, the top scorer, the winner with the Squadra. And logically, the Golden Ball of that year.
And yet … In 1980 he was suspended for three years for his involvement in the “Totonero”. A stain of a Soulagien black in the history of the Italian championship: match-fixing, illegal bets, Calcio rotten to the heart. And a law on sports fraud to curb the phenomenon. Honest center-forward in Perugia, Paolo Rossi is suspected of having participated in the match arranged against Avellino. Classic process: we set a score before the match, we bet on it clandestinely, the match goes as planned, we pocket the jackpot. 8 million lire to share with three teammates. It takes a lot. One of the biggest rates for suspects when the evidence is light. This earned him the support of the world of Italian football. His sentence is reduced to two years.
Its convocation for the World Cup 1982 (that of sad memory for the French: Seville, Schumacher, lose magnificent) however arouses skepticism. That he finishes sweeping by eliminating Brazil almost alone in the quarter. Paolo Rossi v Socrates, Falcao & Co: 3-2. In the semifinals, he plants the two goals of the victory against Poland. In the final, his final pawn of the competition launches Italy on the rails of victory against Germany (3-1). However, he had been transparent during the first phase of this World Cup, and only the obstinacy of his trainer, Enzo Bearzot, had prevented him from going over his ineffectiveness on the bench.
Mythical trio at Juve
After this wonderful year, the man who scored his first international goal against France at the 1978 World Cup will no longer be successful with the Squadra. At the 1986 World Cup, he did not remove the substitutes’ chasuble. In the meantime, the spotlight has not moved away. With Michel Platini and the Polish Zbigniew Boniek, he forms the magical trio of a legendary team: Juventus de Turin, which rolls-compress Italian and European football. Italian Championship and Cup, Cup Cups, European Super Cup, Champion Clubs’ Cup in 1985 whose tragic final against Liverpool is played at the Heysel stadium – 39 dead among Italian supporters, suffocated against the fences trying to escape to a horde of English supporters.
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For Paolo Rossi, the rest will be less glorious. Transfer to AC Milan (the equivalent of a move from Barça to Real currently), repeated injuries. End of career in virtual anonymity at Hellas Verona. Farewell to the field at the age of 31, in 1987. His retirement is that of an athlete who does not suffer the full force: business leader, sports manager, consultant for Sky, unsuccessful candidacy for the European elections in 2002 under the banner of the Rightist National Alliance. In the very modest terms used in these circumstances, he suffered from an incurable disease.
Gilles Dhers
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