The death of Enzo Bearzot, the former Italy coach who won the 1982 World Cup, has reminded me of my debt to him.
Though his death barely made a ripple in the sea of fatuous football coverage, Enzo Bearzot deserves far more recognition in media outlets in English than has been accorded to him. Apparently, however, the death of a coach who brought the World Cup to Italy after fourty-four years back in 1982 deserves to be relegated to an afterthought, while the redundant speculation around the hapless Inter coach Rafael Benitez and his future, Mario Balotelli’s hubris when collecting an award, and whether or not the latest gloom over the Eastlands is a result of Mancunian weather or Carlos Tevez’s latest sulk are far more compelling news items.

Apart from websites devoted to Italian football, Bearzot’s death was largely ignored or given perfunctory acknowledgement. Here is a small but symbolic attempt to make that right.

Bearzot died on December 21st, 2010, aged eighty-three. Wikipedia and other sources can fill you in on the biographical details--when he was born, where he played--but I will take a more personal look at what Bearzot meant to me, a fan who was only three at the time of Italy’s against-the-odds 1982 World Cup triumph. I would only come to know and contextualize Bearzot’s success against the backdrop of spectacular Azzurri failure. Though Italy comprehensively failed in 1986, I was still not a fan of football yet. And though I was enthusiastically a football fan by 1990, the age of eleven was also too soon to appreciate the World Cup of eight years earlier.

However, Italia 90 came but never went, as Italy’s heartbreaking loss to Argentina in the semi-final indelibly inscribed the image of a disconsolate Aldo Serena on my consciousness. Inquisitive though I was, I could not yet fathom what the defeat meant to the Italian footballing tradition. In short, I was unable to see beyond my dejection.

Four years later, however, it became clearer what Bearzot meant to Calcio. Italy lost their opening game to Ireland in USA 94, and most of the coverage of the game followed a similar theme: Italy are slow starters, just like they were in 1982. It was then and only then I began to understand the potentially redeeming nature of the collapse to Ireland. Italy would, like in Spain 1982, a tournament that had been revealed to me piecemeal via scattershot imagery that makes up most World Cup related shows, be resurgent and go on to win the World Cup.

It seemed that way for a bit. They defeated Norway in a nervy encounter that needed a Dino Baggio header to see Italy through. They only made it to the second round as one of the best third-placed teams. However, Italy then beat Nigeria (only just), Spain, and Bulgaria to play Brazil in the Final. Though they lost the Final on penalties, the mantra had almost ossified itself in me: Italy are slow starters, but their initial failures could spur them onto great things.

In 1994 Italy were led by Arrigo Sacchi, a stubborn man who arguably invested more in his tactics than his personnel. His method saw Italy reach the Final of 1994. During the 1982 World Cup, Bearzot was also obstinate, but the crucial difference between him and Sacchi was that he placed his belief in his players. His dogged refusal to drop Paolo Rossi, whose match-fixing ban had allowed him only three games at the end of the 1981-2 season, seemed to be madness, and, as John Foot writes in his excellent Calcio: A History of Italian Football, the press rounded on Bearzot: “Bearzot took Rossi to the 1982 World Cup against the advice of the whole press corps. The media seemed to have been right in the early games. Rossi was appalling. He couldn’t trap the ball, he looked slow and his passes went astray” (Foot, Calcio, 207).

Italy’s opening results were abysmal: they drew Poland 0-0, Peru 1-1, and Cameroon 1-1. Of course, Rossi was not the only culprit, but he was seen as a conspicuously misguided inclusion. The press continued to savage Bearzot’s Italy, and the stress was mounting on the team.

Most managers would acquiesce to the peculiarly overwhelming pressure Italy’s hyper-critical media places on them, but not Bearzot. He was to be vindicated. Paolo Rossi scored a hat-trick against Brazil in the second round that saw Italy storm to the semi-finals where Rossi’s brace sunk Poland. Marco Tardelli’s scream in the Final against West Germany is an imperishable memory for many, but Rossi scored the opener in that game as well. Bearzot’s gamble hugely paid off, and Italy were World Champions after fourty-four years.

That triumph was testament to Bearzot’s belief in not just Rossi, though he has become emblematic of it, but also a group of players who looked like they would disintegrate against the likes of Brazil and West Germany.

I now have all the Italy games from the second round onwards of the 1982 World Cup on DVD, and after obsessively watching them alongside the much more glossy coverage of the 2006 World Cup triumph, some tournaments in the intervening twenty-four years make much more sense. There have been times when Italy’s slow start has resulted in total failure (Euro 2004), and there have been times when a strong start has led to a strong showing (Euro2000 and World Cup 2006). However, in the event that Italy do not start well, all commentators somehow gesture to Italy's 1982 glory. I must admit that I personally put great stock in the slow-start mantra, and for that solace, even if it may sometimes be misleading, I am indebted to Enzo Bearzot.

Addio Bearzot.