World Cup heroes: 'Gentile', the man who dwarfed Maradona

CAIRO – 11 June 2018: Italy achieved four World Cup titles and they were the first nation to achieve the title twice in a row in 1934 and 1938; also, they were the nation to stop Zinedine Zidane’s dreams in 2006, but achieving the title in 1982 in Spain will remain a special story in the history of Italian Football.

The Italian team in 1982 turned the nation’s lack of confidence to strong belief and the nation’s doubt to pure trust after they achieved what everyone thought was impossible.



There are many heroes to remember in this successful campaign but Claudio Gentile will forever remain the man who started everything.

A strong physique, a big mustache and pure Italian defensive techniques shaped the personality of Gentile on the pitch; he was part of the Juventus immune defense alongside Antonio Cabrini, Gaetano Scirea and behind them the veteran goalkeeper, Dino Zoff.



Back to Spain, the Italian team played at one of the easiest groups in the tournament alongside Poland, Cameroon and Peru and everyone expected Italy and 1974 third placed, Poland, to go through easily.

Italy ended the three group stage games with a draw and they only scored twice. Italy shared the second place at the group with Cameroon but they advanced to the second round as they scored one goal more than the African side.

After poor performances at the first round, everyone back home expected a humiliation for the “Squadra Azzurra” at the second round, especially when they played at the same group alongside the tournament favorites, Brazil and the defending champions, Argentina.

Argentina came to the World Cup with the 1978 champions like Osvaldo Ardiles, Ubaldo Fillol, Daniel Passarella, Mario Kempes and they brought their wonder kid, Diego Armando Maradona.

Italy manager, Enzo Perzoet, knew that he needed to stop Maradona if they wanted to defeat Argentina and he decided to man mark him on the pitch; Gentile was the only one who could accomplish this mission.

Gentile did not have a better day than June 29, 1982 in Sarrià Stadium, Barcelona when he dwarfed Maradona and opened the gates for his teammates to break the Latin defense and win the game 2-1.



Gentile annoyed Maradona with his aggressive defensive tackles and he fouled him more than 11 times in the first half only, leaving the game with a yellow card and the game points for his team.



Gentile was highly criticized after the game from the world press and he replied to them saying "Football is not for ballerinas”.

After the game, Italy surprised the world again when they defeated Brazil, Poland and West Germany to achieve the title.

Italy became the first nation to achieve the title after defeating the last three World Cup Champions; 1970’s Brazil, 1974’s West Germany and 1982’s Argentina.