Another link that connects the 1982 World Cup in Spain and Italian Football's Hall of Fame has been tied together today as Alessandro Altobelli has joined other key players from that unforgettable tournament. From Bergomi to Cabrini, from Tardelli to Paolo Rossi, passing Zoff, Antognoni, Oriali and Enzo Bearzot, ‘Spillo’ looked back on the most exciting adventure in his career with many of his teammates: “Receiving this accolade," – he started off – "is a wonderful surprise and very satisfying. Not everyone enters the Italian Football history books; you need to sacrifice a lot and deliver in the most crucial moments. I must thank all my teammates from Inter and all the great players I had the fortunate chance to play with in the National team.”

He is Italy's sixth all-time highest goalscorer, alongside Adolfo Baloncieri and Filippo Inzaghi, with 25 to his name (“actually 28 after scoring a hat-trick in Mexico against Guadalajara in a World Cup warm-up game that wasn't considered an official fixture…”) but there is one that is etched in the memory of every Italian who is 50 years or older: the third goal in the World Cup final in 1982 against Germany that would eventually see Italy lift the trophy for the third time in its history. Altobelli started the game on the subs bench, but came on straight after kick-off at Santiago Bernabeu due to an injury to Graziani: “I played 20 minutes or so in the semi-final because Ciccio got hurt," he remembers, "and when I saw that he went down and held his shoulder in the final, I immediately took off my tracksuit, not giving Bearzot a second to even think about it. I was looking for that goal, I was confident in myself and I was in good form. When I scored, my only thought was that we had sealed the result. Only after did it dawn on me what I, and my teammates, had done."

Altobelli speaks in the plural form, because in that National side friendship came above everything else, despite the competition for places: “In the early games of the competition when he couldn't score, everyone laid criticism at Paolo's door (Rossi). I knew I was never going to play because Bearzot was in love with him as a player. I told Paolo, 'stay calm, the goal will come’. Then three came all at once and he never looked back. He led us to winning the World Cup, paying back Bearzot and the players' faith in him, as we tried to help him in every way possible."

But it's too simplistic to just tie Altobelli and Italy's long love story together to only the 1982 World Cup. After first appearing in the 1980 European Championships, he captained the side eight times between 1986 and 1987, and at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico ‘Spillo’ grabbed four of Italy's five goals, eventually being knocked out by a certain Michel Platini's France in the Round of 16: “France were a top side, but also we were strong. That was my World Cup where I started on the back of a great league campaign. I scored in the opening game against Bulgaria, then slotted home a penalty against Maradona's Argentina and in the final group game got two other goals against South Korea; the own goal would have probably been given to me if it had been played today meaning I would have had a hat-trick. Lineker won the Golden Boot award with six goals but who knows how many I would have got had we gone further in the tournament….”

A complete centre-forward, strong in the air and great technically, he always had a strong feeling in front of goal, despite never ending leading scorer in a single season in Serie A. His name is undoubtedly associated with Inter, where he made 466 appearances and scored 209 goals, winning a Scudetto title and two Coppa Italia between 1977 and 1988: “After my second year at Brescia, everyone wanted me: AC Milan, Juventus, Inter. As fortune had it, the Brescia President was a massive Inter fan, Francesco Saleri. He took me to Milan to sign for them."

And to think that ‘Spillo’ - a nickname given to him by a primary school teacher who saw this skinny yet lethal player in front of goal during training in Latina's youth teams - was about to take a completely different path: “After finishing middle school, my father told me it was time to learn a trade. And so he sent me to a friend of his to become a butcher. I got the hang of it early on and was good.” At this point, Gaspare Ventre, a barber in Sonnino - a small town of about 7000 inhabitants in the province of Latina where Altobelli was born and raised - entered the story: “He was the one who got Spes (the town's football team) up and running. As soon as I could, I would finish work and go and train. I always say to children who are just starting out to play that if I was able to become a World Champion, coming from a town where there wasn't even a pitch, then also they can."

That lad, who every Sunday scored at least four or five goals, started to turn a few eyes and ears and some attention from the locals: “The best players in the team were me and Giovanni ‘Giannino’ Bernardini. One day, a man named Nando came to get us to sign a sheet of paper; he wanted us to go and play for Latina. I didn't sign it because there was a company in Latina called Fulgorcavi wo had its own football team. I thought that if they called me I could play and have a guaranteed job at the same time. Nando, though, came back a second and third time, and with that paper in hand also offered me a fifty-thousand lira note. At that time, it took me a week to earn five hundred lira; it seemed like an unbelievable sum of money. And so I signed, I was very lucky." And Giovanni ‘Giannino’ Bernardini? “He went on to do something else. He now has a B&B in Sonnino. When I go back home, we sometimes meet up and speak about the good old days.”

From Latina, he then headed towards Emilia-Romagna: “I went to Cesena for a trial. They organised a friendly and I scored and put myself in the spotlight. When I was returning home, they called me to say Brescia had bought me. My mother didn't want me to go, saying it was too dangerous, because there had been a terrorist attack a few days prior in Piazza della Loggia. I assured her everything would be OK and told her not to worry. I only had to go and think about playing football."

Then came Inter, the National team and the biggest joy of all that every child dreams about, lifting a World Cup. Altobelli had confirmed himself as one of the best centre-forwards around. But competition was fierce: “There was an unbelievabale amount of talent, think that a player like Pruzzo didn't even get called up to the National team. I had to compete alongside Rossi, Graziani, Pulici, Virdis: just incredible how many top strikers we had in Italy at that time!” And where have they all gone? “Football has changed. In the past, the wings and the creative players played to aid the frontline. Nowadays, nobody make assists, strikers don't have that help anymore." From the solitude of being number one to the solitude of number nines: “Most goals come from the flanks, but if there aren't any good players in that part of the pitch then the one who has to put it away bears the brunt."

Memories are full of champions: “I played with Maradona, Platini, Falcao, Boniek, Junior. Every now and then I flick through the Panini albums from the '80s and take myself back to that period. What great times! The best teammate I ever had was Beccalossi; he was a footballing genius. It's hard to think he never got called up for the National team. The most difficult defenders I faced were Gentile and Vierchowod. I hardly slept the night before facing Pietro, but it was the same for him.” It's difficult to compare him with any of the strikers today: “It's a different era, I struggle to make comparisons. Lautaro Martinez and Lukaku? Let's say I was a good mix of both of these two. I was quick, could shoot with both feet, and had a good header, too. I wasn't the greatest, but I knew how to do everything well." In Altobelli's present there's Inter, who represent his past as a player. It's an Inter with two faces, one that is doing so well in the Champions League and one that slips up in the league: “Home or away, Inter are the strongest team when there's a long, hard slog. It's a team that can beat anyone on its day but can't win easily against bottom of the league: a little bit like me, maybe that's why we teamed up so well together...”

Photos: 1) The third goal scored by Altobelli in the final with Germany 2) The Azzurri carry Enzo Bearzot after the World Cup win 3) The number 18 shirt worn by Altobelli at Spain '82 on show at the Museo del Calcio (Football Museum)