The 1982 FIFA World Cup, the 12th FIFA World Cup, was held in Spain from 13 June to 11 July. The tournament was won by Italy, after defeating West Germany 3–1 in the final. It was Italy's third World Cup win and first since 1938. The holders Argentina were eliminated in the second group round. The tournament's top scorer was Paolo Rossi of Italy with six goals, including a hat-trick in a second group game against Brazil and one in the final.

Spain was chosen as the host nation by FIFA in London, England on 6 July 1966. Hosting rights for the 1974 and 1978 tournaments were awarded at the same time. West Germany agreed a deal with Spain by which Spain would support West Germany for the 1974 tournament, and in return West Germany would allow Spain to bid for the 1982 World Cup unopposed.

For the first time, the World Cup finals expanded from 16 to 24 teams. This allowed more teams, especially from Africa and Asia, to participate.

Absent from the finals were 1974 and 1978 runners-up Netherlands (eliminated by Belgium and France) and 1974 and 1978 participant Sweden (eliminated by Scotland and Northern Ireland). Northern Ireland qualified for the first time since 1958. England, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, and the Soviet Union were back in the Finals after a 12-year absence. England had its first successful World Cup qualifying campaign in 20 years - the English team had qualified automatically as hosts in 1966 and as defending champions in 1970, then failed to qualify for the 1974 and 1978 tournaments. Yugoslavia were also back after missing the 1978 tournament. Algeria, Cameroon, Honduras, Kuwait, and New Zealand all participated in the World Cup for the first time.

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War. The current champions are Spain, who won the 2010 tournament.

The current format of the tournament involves 32 teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about a month  this phase is often called the World Cup Finals. A qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, is used to determine which teams qualify for the tournament together with the host nation(s).

The 19 World Cup tournaments have been won by eight different national teams. Brazil have won five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. The other World Cup winners are Italy, with four titles; Germany, with three titles; Argentina and inaugural winners Uruguay, with two titles each; and England, France, and Spain, with one title each.

A World Cup is a type of sporting competition.

World Cup commonly refers to:

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Diego Armando Maradona Franco (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈdjeɣo maɾaˈðona]; born 30 October 1960) is a retired Argentine football player, and current manager of Al Wasl FC in Dubai. Many experts, football critics, former and current players consider Maradona the greatest football player of all time. He won FIFA Player of the Century award which was to be decided by votes on their official website, their official magazine and a grand jury.

He is the only player in football history who set world-record contract fees twice. The first, when he was transferred to Barcelona for a then world record £5m and the second, when he was transferred to Napoli for another record fee £6.9m. Over the course of his professional club career Maradona played for Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla and Newell's Old Boys. In his international career, playing for Argentina, he earned 91 caps and scored 34 goals.

He played in four FIFA World Cup tournaments, including the 1986 tournament, where he captained Argentina and led them to their victory over West Germany in the final, winning the Golden Ball award as the tournament's best player. In that same tournament's quarterfinal round, he scored both goals in a 2–1 victory over England that entered football history, though for two different reasons. The first goal was via an unpenalized handball known as the "Hand of God", while the second goal followed a 60 m (66 yd) dribble past five England players, voted "The Goal of the Century" by FIFA.com voters in 2002.

Dino Zoff (born February 28, 1942 in Mariano del Friuli) is an Italian former football goalkeeper and is the oldest winner ever of the World Cup, which he earned as captain of the Italian team in the 1982 tournament in Spain, at the age of 40 years, 4 months and 13 days.

Zoff was a goalkeeper of outstanding ability and has a place in the history of the sport among the very best in this role, being named the 3rd greatest goalkeeper of the 20th century by the IFFHS behind Lev Yashin and Gordon Banks. He holds the record for the longest playing time without allowing goals in international tournaments (1142 minutes) set between 1972 and 1974. With 112 caps, he is the fourth most capped player for the Azzurri. In 2004 Pelé named him as one of the 125 greatest living footballers.

After retiring as a footballer, Zoff went on to become coach for the Italian national team and several other Italian clubs.

Dino Zoff was born in Mariano del Friuli, Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Italy), and was elected in a poll by the IFFHS as the third best goalkeeper of the 20th Century - after Lev Yashin (1st) and Gordon Banks (2nd).