Italy at the FIFA World Cup Goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon is one of only three players who have been part of five FIFA World Cup squads. Two Italians were awarded the Golden Boot for best goalscorer at a FIFA World Cup: Paolo Rossi in 1982 and Salvatore Schillaci in 1990 with 6 goals each. Golden Ball award Golden Boot award Other individual awards Three World Cup finals have been officiated by representatives of the Italian football federation, only English referees have had the honour more often (four times). The 1978 final between Argentina and the Netherlands has been led by Sergio Gonella, who had already officiated the
2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) transitioned from the Asian Football Confederation to UEFA after the end of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, debuted in the European qualifiers. The teams in each group would play against each other in a home and away basis. The team with the most points in each group would qualify to the World Cup. The runners up would be ranked. For the sake of fairness, in groups with seven teams, results against the seventh placed team were ignored. The two best ranked runners up would also qualify to the World Cup. The other six runners up were drawn into three home