Roberto Rosetti was widely believed to be one of the world's best referees of his time. He was known as a strict man - the regulations were his bible - but also as a good communicator. He talked a lot to the players and had no problem getting his points across.
bonus
An added bonus was that he wasn't implicated in the bribery scandal that has rocked Italy. This last fact actually earned him a place among the World Cup 2006 officials, replacing Massimo de Santis, who was involved in the match-fixing schemes of Juventus's (former) manager Luciano Moggi. In an intercepted telephone call, Moggi, in true maffia fashion, described Rosetti along with Collina as being too 'objective' and said they should be 'punished' for this. A statement that should clear Rosetti of any suspision. Rosetti has been an international referee from 2002 till july 2010.
World Cups
The tall Italian got four matches in the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany.
The 2010 World Cup should have been his. With Italy out early, Rosetti could have gone far, but that didn't happen. After the match Argentina - Mexico in which he and his team allowed an off-side goal, clear for all to see on the giant screens on the stadium, the Italian officials were sent home.
cups
Internationally Rosetti had been officiating matches in the Champions League since 2005 and UEFA cup since 2003.
The very year he got his FIFA Badge he took charge of the final in the Euro u17 championships. Only one year later Rosetti officiated the final of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Abu Dhabi. In that match, between Brazil and Spain, he sent off two players: Melli from Spain in the 4th minute and Brazil's Frenadinho in the last minute.
Rosetti was also in charge of three matches in the Confederations cup in 2005
For a long list of more finals, semi- and quarter-finals etc, take a look at his palmares
EC 2008
Rosetti took charge of 4 matches of EURO 2008 in Austria/Switzerland: 2 in the group stage, a quarter final and the final (Spain - Germany). He ended up 4th on the WorldReferee EURO 2008 list.
Best
Rosetti was chosen best referee of the year 2008 by IFFHS. However, in the WorldReferee listing of 2008 Rosetti came out as number two, just a little behind Peter Frojdfeldt.
2010
The Champions League semi-final in April was his first international match in 2010. We wonder what happened. There was a lot of anger when he didn't award a clear penalty to Montolivo in the match Milan - Fiorentina, February 24 and he wasn't assigned a match for a month. Then Rosetti came back doing a Serie B match.
But 2010 wasn't going to be his year: immediately after he was sent home early from the World Cup he announced his retirement. The reason he gave was a new job as the referee designator of the Serie B. Well...