Milan (AFP) – Italy lost one of its football legends with the death of Luigi “Gigi” Riva, the 1968 European Cup champion and 1970 World Cup runner-up, at the age of 79, according to what the local football federation announced on Monday.
Published on: 01/22/2024 – 20:51
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Gigi Riva raises a Cagliari shirt with his name before the Italian team’s friendly match against Russia. Cagliari, February 9, 2005 © Carlo Baroncini/AFP/Archive
The Italian Federation mourned the national team’s all-time top scorer with 35 goals in 42 matches he played between 1965 and 1974, saying, “Gigi Riva has passed away. Italian football is mourning one of its beloved heroes,” adding, “He passed away… one of the strongest strikers of all time and the best scorer in the history of the country.” National team”.
The Federation praised what it described as “a legendary landmark in the Cagliari club, with whom he participated in 315 matches and led them to win the Italian League – the only one won by the Rossoblu – in the 1969/70 season. He made Sardinian fans (home of Cagliari) and fans throughout Italy fall in love with His love for wearing the blue shirt (of the national team) was as if it were his second skin.”
The Italian Federation stated that Riva “was the first player from Cagliari to be called up to the national team, as he appeared for the first time at the age of twenty and was among the heroes of the victory in the 1968 European Cup, and scored a decisive goal to win the continental title in the final with Yugoslavia (2-0, where he scored the goal.” the first)”.
He continued, “He proved himself two years later, in the World Cup finals in Mexico, and scored two goals in the quarter-finals and a goal in the ‘match of the century’ with Germany (4-3 in the semi-finals) and contributed to leading Italy to the final match, which it then lost to Brazil ( 1-4).
© 2024 AFP
2024-01-22 19:51:05
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