Paolo Rossi

Paolo Rossi is, for me, the definitive redemption story in football. Sidelined and doubted before the 1982 World Cup, he answered with six goals, the Golden Boot, the Golden Ball, and a world title for Italy, one of the great individual tournaments anyone has ever produced. I love that it came from a striker out of Prato who had every reason to fade and instead seized the biggest stage. The Ballon d'Or only confirmed what that summer in Spain had already shown. His passing in 2020 was a real loss, but the image of his joy after those goals is permanent.

Name (English)

Paolo Rossi

Name (Japanese)

パオロ・ロッシ

Reading

ぱおろ・ろっし

Born

September 23, 1956 – December 9, 2020

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Monkey

Origin

Prato, Province of Prato, Italy

Height

174 cm

Occupation

association football player / politician

Awards & achievements

• 1982 World Cup Golden Ball
• Ballon d'Or
• 1982 L'Équipe Champion of Champions

• Official sitehttps://pablitorossi.com
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo%20Rossi
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%91%E3%82%AA%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BB%E3%83%AD%E3%83%83%E3%82%B7
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q178628

Tags

• Province of Prato
• association football player
• politician

Last updated

2026-06-18

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.