Cayasso is still driving around in THAT car
Imagine football before the English Premier League or the Champions League.
Only one match was live on television every week, and not a single one from Europe was shown all season.
That was the scenario heading into Italia 90, the World Cup that changed football.
It was a tournament that followed the political revolution of the fall of the Eastern Bloc, and it sparked similar shockwaves in football.
Paul Gascoigne and Salvatore ‘Toto’ Schillaci became household names and Luciano Pavarotti’s ‘Nessun Dorma’ brought opera to the masses.
But for Scotland, Italia 90 brings back cold sweats about the thought of Costa Rica. The minnows from Central America, unknown and unfancied, pulled off that shock 1-0 victory in Genoa.
Their story is part of a fascinating book, “World in Motion” by journalist Simon Hart, which looks back on possibly the most-influential four weeks in the history of the game.
“Costa Rica players were given cars for beating Scotland,” he says. “Some of them didn’t already have cars, so this was a big, big deal,” he revealed.
“Their goalscorer that day, Juan Cayasso, is still driving around in the red Toyota Corolla that he was given.
“People still ask him now if it’s the car from Italia 90.
“It was their first-ever World Cup, and for them to get past both Scotland and Sweden and qualify was incredible.
“Their Yugoslavian coach, Bora Milutinovic, took them up into the mountains to prepare, and had them doing three-a-day fitness sessions. They also prepared for Scotland by watching all the Rocky films.
“Costa Rica played Wales in a warm-up game at Ninian Park and after the match, some of their players swapped shirts.
“They were then ordered to get their shirts back as they didn’t have any spares!
“Then at the World Cup, they were short of kits. The coach asked Juventus for 22 kits and they ended up playing Brazil wearing black-and-white Juventus shirts with all the logos removed!”
World in Motion by Simon Hart is available from de Coubertin Books, decoubertin.co.uk