“Ciao Pablito, symbol of joy, of revenge, of generosity, of sympathy, of success and, personally, symbol of pride for all Italians. A human hero and a world legend."

Read FIFA President Gianni Infantino's full comments below....

“When I was a boy and I played football in the street, Paolo Rossi was to Italy what Pele and Maradona were to Brazil and Argentina.”

Read the full remark from Clarence Seedorf and tributes from other footballing icons in the link below...

"What really stays with me is seeing all the Italian flags in the stadium after the ref had blown the final whistle. Of course I remember the goals, all those great moments. But when I lifted my head and saw all those flags all over the stadium... I'm not a nationalist, but at moments like that you really feel like you belong to something. You belong to a group, to a nation. Seeing the stadium simply covered with Italian flags was an extraordinary moment, one I will remember forever."

Read Rossi's full interview with FIFA in the link below...

Paolo Rossi hadn’t scored for Italy in three years and almost 15 hours of action. Enzo Bearzot was under deafening pressure to drop him going into the showdown with overwhelming favourites Brazil.

He refused. “He was the best striker in the world and I knew he was guy who could win us the World Cup,” said ‘The Old Man’.

So, Bearzot came up with an ingenious plan to relax Rossi. He spent the day before the game researching cubist and surrealist painters. That night, he walked to Rossi’s room, knocked on the door, and they spent 40 minutes discussing art.

The next day Rossi painted Barcelona blue against arguably the most artistic side in football history.

“It may sound silly, but I always think back to how important that chat was for everything that happened,” Rossi said years later. “I didn’t know at the time he was pretending [to be interested]. It relaxed me, I slept well, I woke up feeling up good.”