Paolo ROSSI

After playing for various local teams in Tuscany, he made his debut at 16 in the Juventus youth team.

He began his adventure with Vicenza. Thanks to his goals, he led the team to Serie A and, the following season, to second place in the championship (the best result ever for a newly promoted team), becoming the best scorer of the year. Called up to the national team for the FIFA World Cup in Argentina, he scored 3 goals, earning the nickname “Pablito”.

Among the protagonists of the victorious World Cup in Spain, he scored three goals that brought Brazil to its knees in the second qualifying round. He scored 9 goals in total, including in the final won against West Germany, earning him the title of top scorer of the competition. That same year he also won the Ballon d’Or.

He is included in the FIFA 100, the list of the strongest players of all time. In 2010 he won the Fair Play Menarini International Award and, in 2019, he was among the protagonists of the talk show “The Champions Tell their Stories”. After his death, in 2020, the “Model for young people” category of the Fair Play Menarini Award was named in his memory.