World Cup countdown: Marco Tardelli takes celebrating to a new level | OneFootball

Almost 26 years ago, at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, Italy’s Marco Tardelli took goal celebrations to a whole new level.

There’s something strange about looking back at football from the 1980s now. The players seem slow, almost amateurish, as they amble across the pitch. Balls bobble, gold chains jangle.

The 1982 World Cup final was not very easy on the eye. Both teams groaned through the game under the hot Madrid sun and the West Germans made Italy – a nation famed for its Catenaccio football – seem like gung-ho attacking adventurers by comparison.

For much of evening, it seemed like this final was in danger of going down as one of the most unsightly in World Cup history until, in the 69th minute, everything changed.

German defender Uli Stielike couldn’t close down Italian libero Gaetano Scirea and the ball rolled into the path of Tardelli, who smashed it left-footed past goalkeeper Harald Schumacher to make it 2-0 on the night.

A defensive midfielder who played for the likes of Juventus and Internazionale during his career, Tardelli celebrated his goal in a way that had rarely been seen before. He wheeled away with his eyes full of tears and his heart open wide and the expression on his face has since become one of the most iconic images in the game’s long and illustrious history.

A boy from Capanne di Careginne scored a goal which effectively sealed Italy’s first World Cup triumph for 44 years, and that’s how much it meant to him.

The intervening years have seen all manner of goal celebrations, from somersaults, to dancing at corner flags, to the humble dab. But nobody will ever enjoy scoring a goal quite as much as Marco Tardelli, of that you can be sure.