SUPER HERO

At espana 1982 world cup,One man rose from world cup obscurity to leave his footprints on the sand of soccer time,it was an indellible print that many will hate to remember especially two super powers of world football,The selecao and the Machines.

PAOLO ROSSI was considered as a failure based on the three matches played at the first group stage and manyITALIANS would have been cursing coach ENZO BEARZOT for lining up Rossi against argentina in the first match of the second group stage,when he was substituted in the 80th minute,many would have thought he will be confined to the reserve bench against the super power from south america in the next match.

Rossi was again thrown into action against Brazil by an undettered bearzot, 5 minutes into the match Rossi justified the confidence reposed in him by the coach with a super strike and went on to score two more in a 3-2 win, He punished poland with two goals in the semi final before silencing the german machine with a goal in the final, with six goals in the last three matches he played at espana 82,ROSSI became the first man to win the GOLDEN BOOT and the newly introduced GOLDEN BALL,an honour that only one person after him was able to IMMITATE till now, another ITALIAN, Salvatore schillaci.

However ROSSI's achievement is more unique because he won the cup and gold medal while schillaci only won a bronze medal without the cup.

A giant,super hero and a legend.

TWO OF A KIND

Eusebio Da Silva Ferreira and Just Fontaine.

both were at the world cup in 1966 and1958 respectively,born in africa, Eusebio from lourenquo marques in mozambique, Fontaine from marrakesh in morocco,they won the golden boot for the best goal scorer in 1958 and 1966 for their adopted countries,In swedeen in 1958 Fontaine scored an amazing 13 goals in 6 games to set a record which is yet to be equalled by any world cup player in one single tournament, Fontaine played for france and scored
3 goals against paraguay in a 7-3 win
2 goals against yugoslavia in a 3-2 loss
1 goal against scotland in a 2-1 win
2 goals against ireland in a 4-0 win
1 goal against brazil in a 5-2 loss
4 goals against germany in a 6-3 win crowned him as the goleador at sweden, while france won the bronze medal .
Eusebio scored 9 goals in 1966 for portugal
1 goal against bulgaria in a 3-0 win
2 goals against brazil in a 3-1 win
4 goals against korea dpr in a 5-3 win
1 goal against england in a 2-1 loss
1 goal against ussr in a 2-1 win crowned him as the goleador in england, while portugal won the bronze medal.
the two african born stars lost at the semi finals to the eventual champions,
the two never played in the final,
the two never returned for the next edition nor any other one as a player,
the two scored four goals in one match,
the two represented Europe,
the two won individual honours and national honours at the global fiesta,
they won golden boots and bronze medals,
the two played against pele,arguably the greatest player of all time.
the two played six games in one tournament,
the two never sat on the bench for any match,
they were never injured or out of the field for the entire tournament
they were products of the colonial era.
they were soccer superstars and giants.
they were the best in their adopted countries for the past 50 years.