On 16 December 1952, the 1982 World Cup winner Francesco Graziani was born in Subiaco, in the province of Rome. After three seasons in Serie B for Arezzo, he made his Serie A debut with Torino. During eight seasons, he played a part in important moments of the Granata’s history, also winning the Scudetto in 1976. On a personal level, he also finished as top scorer once as he formed a celebrated strike partnership with Paolo Pulici. In total, Ciccio hit 122 goals and is the seventh-most prolific goalscorer in Torino history. After two years at, Fiorentina, he joined Roma, where he would twice win the Coppa Italia and make the final of the European Cup, a match which saw the Giallorossi go down on penalties to Liverpool. Graziani enjoyed success and continued to score goals in his international career. He made his debut for Italy under Fulvio Bernardini on 19 April 1975 in a European Championship qualifier against Poland. He then won the World Cup at the second attempt. After playing at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, he was a key figure at the 1982 edition in Spain, where he played every game on the left wing and scored a winning goal against Cameroon.

In between those two World Cups, he was also in the side that finished fourth at the 1980 European Championship and scored in the third-place playoff against Czechoslovakia. Overall, he scored 23 goals in 64 appearances and is ninth in the all-time goalscoring charts for Italy.