Gianluca Vialli

2023 - 1 - 6

Gianluca Vialli, Italy football great, dies aged 58 (CNN)

Italy football great Gianluca Vialli has died aged 58 after what he described as his "journey" with an "unwelcome travel companion" -- pancreatic cancer.

“It can appear strange in this moment (of the pandemic), compared to many others I feel very fortunate.” Vialli retired from professional football in 1999 to focus on his role as a full-time manager. “I am not a warrior. “And then on the pitch, we were very complementary… Another bout with the disease swiftly followed in 2019, before his former team Chelsea announced he’d been ‘given the all-clear’ in 2020. Without him, and without Mancini and the other coaches, this victory would mean nothing.

Ex-Chelsea, Juventus star Gianluca Vialli dies at 58 (ESPN)

Former Chelsea and Juventus star Gianluca Vialli has died at the age of 58 following a long battle with cancer.

Their Sampdoria team had lost the European Cup final to Barcelona at the same venue 29 years earlier. The memory of him and his example will live forever in our hearts." Vialli scored twice as Sampdoria beat Anderlecht 2-0 in 1990 to lift the European Cup Winners' Cup. The pair celebrated with a tearful embrace that "was more beautiful than the hugs we used to give each other when I passed him the ball and he scored goals," Vialli said in a TV interview with Italy's RAI in November. Under Vialli, Chelsea won the League Cup and Cup Winners' Cup in 1998 and the FA Cup two years later before he too was dismissed. Vialli left the Genoa-based club in the summer of 1992, moving to Juventus, where after a sluggish start he rediscovered his goal-scoring touch and helped the Turin giants win the Italian league in 1995 and the Champions League the following season.

Italy Mourns The Death Of Legendary Striker Gianluca Vialli (Forbes)

The Italian soccer community mourns the death of one of the most iconic sportspersons of his generation.

[Alessandro Del Piero](https://www.instagram.com/p/CnEjEGprDu9/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D), one of the legends featuring in that stellar Juventus squad, paid tribute to his former teammate with an Instagram post whose caption reads, “Our captain. As a Blucerchiato, Vialli formed a memorable offensive partnership with Roberto Mancini and tallied 141 goals in 328 matches before joining Italian soccer giants [Juventus](https://www.forbes.com/sites/danieleproch/2022/11/29/the-reasons-behind-andrea-agnellis-sudden-resignation-as-the-juventus-president/?sh=60c6a8796581). Vialli’s unparalleled charisma earned him the Bianconeri armband, and he perfectly lived up to that responsibility by lifting the much coveted UEFA Champions League trophy in 1996. [UEFA European Football Championship](https://www.forbes.com/sites/danieleproch/2021/06/15/a-look-at-the-uefa-euro-2020-prize-money-as-italy-tries-to-secure-early-round-of-16-spot/?sh=7ebd4e972201), a trophy that they last had hoisted in 1968. Among the many feats of his impressive career, Vialli boasts the record of being the only striker to have won the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup (today’s Europa League) and UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. [Scudetto](https://www.forbes.com/sites/danieleproch/2023/01/05/napolis-first-loss-of-the-season-enlivens-serie-a-title-race/?sh=6978db2839ca) during the 1990/91 Serie A season.

Gianluca Vialli, the English gentleman made in Italy (The Athletic)

Vialli was the gentleman goalscorer who bestowed cosmopolitan credibility on Chelsea and the Premier League when he moved to London.

[FA Cup](https://theathletic.com/football/fa-cup/) for the first time in over a quarter of a century. The future was the [Premier League](https://theathletic.com/football/premier-league/). [England](https://theathletic.com/football/team/england/) was a place to go at the end of one’s playing days. For years, he was the face of Sky Italia’s coverage of Serie A and the Champions League alongside another legend of the Italian game gone too soon – Paolo Rossi. In 2000, aged only 35, he entered the select club of football men to win that competition as a player and a coach. Imagine if [Everton](https://theathletic.com/football/team/everton/) made the [Champions League](https://theathletic.com/football/champions-league/) final these days, perhaps.) “Sexy football”, as Vialli and Gullit called it, came to the King’s Road and the cosmopolitan Chelsea we know today began in earnest. The columnist Paolo Condo recalled Vialli venting about the lack of coverage his transfer received back home because, to his mind, Serie A considered the Premier League a threat to its apparently unassailable hegemony. Vialli lost his place to Toto Schillaci at the 1990 World Cup on home soil and was an unused substitute in four of their final five games in the tournament. [When Vialli and Mancini came together, Italy came together](https://theathletic.com/2679972/2021/06/30/mancini-and-vialli-an-italian-football-friendship-deeper-than-the-sea/?source=user-shared-article). [Austria](https://theathletic.com/football/team/austria/) got Gianluca Vialli out of his seat at Wembley. Vialli was living with pancreatic cancer, “an unwanted travel companion” in his words, and there was consolation when the news of his death came through on Friday morning that he got to experience that moment with his friend.

Mark Hughes: 'Gianluca Vialli was a beautiful human who loved ... (The Guardian)

The Bradford City manager has paid an emotional tribute to his former Chelsea teammate after his death at the age of 58.

“He was such a great person and it was a genuine pleasure to share a dressing room with him and call him my teammate. He was a brilliant professional, and while he struggled a bit in his first season, he really kicked on after that.” “He was a huge star when he came to Chelsea, but he embraced the club and never gave it the big ‘I am’. “He was the most beautiful human in terms of his ability to make people feel comfortable in his presence,” Hughes said. Hughes played with and under the Italian for two seasons at Chelsea, and he told the Observer that Vialli’s arrival in the summer of 1996 had a major impact in transforming the club’s fortunes. “Myself and Ruud had arrived the season before and the club had made no secret of trying to have a real go at becoming more than a mid-table side,” Hughes said.

Gianluca Vialli, former Italy striker, dies at 58 (Associated Press)

Gianluca Vialli, the former Italy striker who helped Sampdoria and Juventus win Serie A and European trophies before becoming player-manager at Chelsea, ...

Ever since you arrived in 1992, when it was love at first sight...we loved everything about you, absolutely everything — your smile, your being a star and leader at the same time, on the pitch and in the dressing room, your adorable swashbuckling ways, your culture, your class, which you showed until the last day in the black and white stripes.” He continued to live in London after moving on from Chelsea into TV commentary and other ventures. Mihajlović also played with Mancini at Sampdoria after Vialli left the club for Juventus. “We have always been with you, Gianluca. “Our thoughts are with Luca’s wife Cathryn, his daughters Sofia and Olivia, and the rest of his family and his friends at this terribly sad time,” Chelsea said in a statement. Vialli won another Serie A title at Juventus and also raised the Champions League and UEFA Cup trophies with the Bianconeri.