When it comes to cult heroes from Italia 90 - and it's fair to say there were many who fit that description - you cannot look past the host nation's striker Toto Schillaci.
Albeit not so much from an Irish perspective, given it was his goal in the quarter-final that knocked Jack Charlton's side out after the most memorable of runs.
Schillaci would prove to be a one-hit wonder of sorts at international level for Italy. While he won the Golden Boot at the 1990 World Cup with six goals, he only scored one other goal for his country.
But shining on the grandest stage of all means he has an indelible place in the history of the game and as it happened, Schillaci was in Dublin alongside Republic of Ireland legend Ray Houghton for an exhibition of football stickers called 'Chasing the Ball' on display at the Printworks Building in Dublin Castle.
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RTÉ's Game On caught up with both Schillaci and Houghton - reunited for the first time since they both attended last September's Ploughing Championships in Laois - to reminisce about their memories of sharing the stage at Italia 90 and the now 58-year-old Italian, speaking through his translator, quipped that such is his love for Irish people and football supporters, he's hopeful of citizenship coming his way.
And his respect for the Irish squad of yore remains strong: "(We) were expecting that Ireland were going to be a strong team, very united. So (we) were expecting a difficult match to play. It proved to be a difficult match."
On the long-term impact of that 1990 quarter-final, he added that "(the game) was 33 years ago but (I've) been visiting Ireland from time to time and always been well welcomed, notwithstanding the goal scored and what happened."
Houghton recalled that 1990 last-eight fixture against the Italians as one that got away amid what was otherwise a "brilliant" tournament for Ireland.
"When you think back, it's 33 years this year when we played against Italy in the 1990 quarter-finals. It was an incredible day," he said.
"It's actually one of the games that we look back on as a team where we have regrets because I think we didn't really believe in ourselves as much as we should have done.
"Our form up to that game had been good. We were struggling to score goals but we were very difficult to play against.
"But when we went into the match against the host nation, there were so many Italian fans in the stadium. There were quite a few Irish there as well but I think we maybe didn't play to our fullest and certainly Italy got the break when Toto scored and we didn't get a run in the second half."
Houghton joked that he has found it in his heart to forgive Schillaci for scoring that goal.
"We've met up a couple of times so I think we get on really well together. I've forgiven him for scoring that goal," he said, before Schillaci piped up to remind Houghton that he had broken Italian hearts in 1994 when he scored the winner in their USA 94 match-up at Giant's Stadium, New York.
"So we're even," he quipped.
