News about Paolo Rossi

TOM COLLOMOSSE: From utter despair to potential stardom in just a few months, Nicolo Fagioli is the leftfield Euro 2024 pick now looking to emulate one of Italy's greatest players. The midfielder has recently completed a seven-month suspension for breaching betting rules and with so little action under his belt, his chances of making the tournament seemed remote. Yet there is a precedent here. In 1982, then-Italy coach Enzo Bearzot called up Juventus striker Paolo Rossi for the World Cup even though he had only just finished a two-year ban for his involvement in a match-fixing scandal. Italy won the tournament and Rossi - who always maintained his innocence - scored six goals.

RIATH AL-SAMARRAI IN DORTMUND: From the nation that brought us catenaccio, there has been a whiff of defensiveness about the Italians this week as they ponder their peculiar status at Euro 2024. When they launch their campaign against Albania in Dortmund on Saturday night, it will be from the somewhat jarring position of being defending champions of whom far less is expected than normal. If they are to find familiar comforts in this tournament, it will be as dark horses. That has certainly been the consensus view aimed at a young group featuring only nine survivors from the triumphant class of 2021 and which bears little resemblance to the squad that beat England in the final at Wembley.

Enner Valencia has scored on Ecuador's last six World Cup goals, marking him as one of a select group of players to have scored so many goals for their country on the biggest stage in history. In 1966, Eusebio was Portugal's first netting master before Italian Paolo Rossi and Russian Oleg Salenko achieved the feat in the 1980s and 1990s respectively, as revealed by Opta. Valencia scored all three of Ecuador's goals in the 2014 World Cup's group stage, and the South American team failed to qualify for the tournament four years ago.

Only a select group of footballers will qualify to play at a World Cup. An even more elite group is those that were able to win the world's biggest tournament. After all, only eight nations have lifted the trophy in almost a century of history. Any player faces the greatest challenge and the holy grail. However, there have been some truly outstanding teams who came so close to winning it and then stopped so far. Sportsmail looks at some of the best teams that did not win the World Cup in Qatar ahead of the tournament.

ALVISE CAGNAZZO: The sixth round of Serie A fixtures saw the league table get to life, with Napoli, Atalanta, and AC Milan all getting off to a good start in the new season as they announce their early hopes to win the Scudetto. Meanwhile, the Udinese beat Sassuolo 3-1, putting them on a collision course. In our new ten things we learned from Serie A with Sportsmail's Alvise Cagnazzo, we've got all of this and more.