THE summer of 1990 was upon us. John Barnes was rapping up the charts with New Order and the England squad as we all got World Cup fever.

Later, Gazza's tears were etched in our minds as England heartbreakingly went out in the semi-finals to West Germany.

Veteran keeper Peter Shilton guessed the right way for every single penalty, yet couldn't prevent them from hitting the back of his net. Sadly, misses from Chris Waddle and Stuart Pearce meant England were going to have to wait to claim that elusive second World Cup win (and it still goes on!).

It was the first World Cup I have memories of. But England's displays weren't the only lasting memory I took from this enticing tournament.

There were two mesmerising, standout stars who dazzled my young mind - Italy's Salvatore 'Toto' Schillaci and Cameroon's Roger Milla.

The strikers had completely different journeys to the forefront of worldwide recognition that wonderful summer.

After an impressive season for Juventus, Schillaci had just made the national team. He took the last place on the bench for Italy in their opening game against Austria.

He had to wait until the 75th minute to come on to make only his second appearance for his country.

The game was goalless until he scored his first header all season to nab the only goal and grab the headlines in the following day's newspapers.

But he was far from done. After another sub appearance in a 1-0 victory against the United States, he finally got a start in their final group game and scored after just nine minutes against Czechoslovakia in a 2-0 win.

This set off an amazing run of scoring as he managed to net in every game he played for the rest of the tournament, beginning with the 2-0 triumph against Uruguay in the round of 16.

This was followed by a tough 1-0 win against the Republic of Ireland where he turned home the only goal of the game in the 38th minute.