Paolo Rossi

Early years

Rossi was born in Prato, Tuscany, Italy in the area of Santa Lucia. Although he was a member of the squad during the 1972–73 season, Rossi made his debut in professional football with Juventus in 1973, making an appearance in the Coppa Italia and winning a runners-up medal in the 1973 Intercontinental Cup. He was often injury-prone during his first few seasons, only making three Coppa Italia appearances with Juventus between 1972 and 1975, and scoring no goals. After three operations on his knees, he was later sent to gain experience with Como, where he made his Serie A debut during the 1975–76 season, initially playing as a right winger, where his small build would not be a hindrance; he made six Serie A appearances for the club, but again failed to score.

His career reached a turning point when Vicenza Calcio (then Lanerossi Vicenza) engaged him on loan. Coach Giovan Battista Fabbri decided to move him from the wing and place him in the centre of the attack (because of injuries to the then centre-forward) just before the season started. Rossi immediately showed a tremendous knack for getting open in the box and scoring, winning the Serie B Golden Boot with 21 goals in his first year in this more advanced position. In the 1976–77 season, Rossi's qualities as an implacable striker led his team to promotion to Serie A, and he also led Vicenza to the second group stage of the Coppa Italia that season. In the following season, Rossi scored 24 goals, to…

Paolo Rossi is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most prolific Italian forwards of all time. Although he lacked the intimidating physical presence of a typical out-and-out striker, Rossi was a quick, agile, prolific, and elegant centre-forward, with good technique, balance, extremely quick reactions, an accurate shot, and an eye for goal, which enabled him to anticipate defenders in the box for the ball. He made up for his lack of strength, physicality, and shooting power with his keen sense of opportunism, intelligence, positional sense, and sharp finishing skills with both of his feet as well as with his head. This allowed him to excel in the air and beat out larger opponents for the ball, in spite of his relatively short stature. However, he was not particularly adept at set pieces. Although Rossi was primarily known as a striker who mainly operated in the penalty area, he began his career as a right winger, and in his later career with Juventus, he was also deployed as a supporting forward or as centre-forward, but in a role known as a centravanti di manovra in Italian football jargon (similar to the modern false 9 role), owing to the offensive attributes of the club's new signings in midfield, in particular Zbigniew Boniek and Michel Platini, where his role frequently involved holding up the ball or dragging opponents out of position to create space for his teammates' runs with his excellent attacking movement off the ball.

Club

International

Scores and results list Italy's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Rossi goal.

Vicenza

Serie B: 1976–77 Juventus

Serie A: 1981–82, 1983–84 Coppa Italia: 1982–83 European Cup: 1984–85; runner-up: 1982–83 European Cup Winners' Cup: 1983–84 UEFA Super Cup: 1984 Italy

FIFA World Cup: 1982 Individual

Capocannoniere: 1977–78 (24 goals) Serie B top scorer: 1976–77 (21 goals) FIFA World Cup Silver Ball: 1978 FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1978, 1982 Gazzetta Sports Awards Man of the Year: 1978 Sport Ideal European XI: 1978 World XI: 1979, 1986 FIFA World Cup Golden Boot: 1982 FIFA World Cup Golden Ball: 1982 Onze d'Or: 1982 Ballon d'Or: 1982 World Soccer Men's World Player of the Year: 1982 L'Équipe Champion of Champions: 1982 Guerin Sportivo Player of the Year: 1982 Guerin Sportivo All-Star Team: 1982 European Cup top scorer: 1982–83 World Soccer Greatest Players of the 20th century: 41st FIFA 100 UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll: 12th Golden Foot "Football Legends": 2007 Italian Football Hall of Fame: 2016 Enzo Bearzot Award: 2020 Juventus FC Hall of Fame: 2025 IFFHS Legends