Paolo Rossi, Italy’s goalscoring hero from their victorious 1982 World Cup campaign, has died at the age of 64.
The celebrated striker’s death comes with the soccer world still in mourning for Argentina icon Diego Maradona, who passed away late last month.
Italian TV channel RAI Sport, where Rossi had been working as a pundit, said on Thursday “Pablito” had died of an “incurable disease.”
“Such terribly sad news: Paolo Rossi has left us,” RAI Sport presenter Enrico Varriale tweeted.
“Unforgettable Pablito, who made all of us fall in love in that summer of 1982 and who was a precious and competent work colleague in RAI over recent years.”
Rossi’s wife, Federica Cappelletti, posted a photo of herself and her husband on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CImGNuGpSAk along with the words “per sempre” - “forever”.
“There will never be anyone like you, unique, special ...” Cappelletti later wrote in Italian on Facebook.
The Italian football federation (FIGC) said flags would fly at half-mast at its headquarters in Rome and its technical center in Florence.
“Pablito’s passing away is another moment of deep pain, a wound to the heart of all fans that is difficult to heal. We lose a friend and an icon of our football,” said FIGC President Gabriele Gravina.
“His name is indelibly linked to the blue shirt and his style of play inspired many strikers of future generations.”
Rossi won two Serie A titles, a European Cup and a Coppa Italia with Juventus but will be most fondly remembered for lighting up the 1982 World Cup in Spain with six goals.
His selection in the Italy squad came after a two-year ban for a match-fixing scandal and was initially criticized by pundits, who wrote him off as out of shape.
But they were left eating their words when he struck one of the World Cup’s great hat-tricks against Brazil.
Italy’s 3-2 victory in that classic encounter in the second group phase booked them a place in the semis against Poland, where Rossi again made the difference.
He sunk the Poles with a brace in a 2-0 win that fired his side into the World Cup decider against West Germany.
Rossi then scored Italy’s first in a 3-1 victory that gave them their third World Cup title and their first since 1938.
He won the Golden Boot as the top scorer and Golden Ball as the player of the tournament, a campaign regarded as one of the best individual World Cup performances of all-time.
He was also awarded the 1982 Ballon d’Or as Europe’s top footballer.
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