Gianluca Vialli

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 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.

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

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.

Gianluca Vialli, the former Italian soccer forward for Sampdoria, Juventus and Chelsea, has died. He was 58.

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. 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.” “We have always been with you, Gianluca. Vialli won another Serie A title at Juventus and also raised the Champions League and UEFA Cup trophies with the Bianconeri. The pair were known as the “gemelli del gol,” or “goal twins,” when they played together at Sampdoria, leading the Genoa club to its only Serie A title in 1991 and its only European title in 1990 with the Cup Winners’ Cup — plus four Italian Cup trophies.

Former Italy and Chelsea striker Gianluca Vialli has passed away aged 58 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Former Chelsea, Juventus and Italy player Gianluca Vialli died Friday at the age of 58 after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer since 2017.

Vialli signed for Chelsea as a free agent in 1996 and was player-manager in 1998 after taking over from Ruud Gullit to become the first Italian to manage a Premier League club. "A legend to us and to all of football. The man from Cremona was also awarded the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic twice -- once in 1991 after Sampdoria won the Scudetto and again in 2021 after the Azzurri's Euro triumph at Wembley Stadium. He helped I Blucerchiati to the Serie A title and European Cup Winners' Cup over an eight-season stay. "Gianluca was a splendid person and he leaves a void that cannot be filled," said the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) president Gabriele Gravina. Former Chelsea, Juventus, Sampdoria and Italy international Gianluca Vialli died Friday at the age of 58 after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer since 2017.

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.

Gianluca Vialli's death at the age of 58 has prompted an outpouring of affection and grief. The former Italy, Sampdoria, Juventus and Chelsea striker was ...

"I try to teach them that happiness depends on the perspective with which you look on life, that you shouldn't put on airs, that you should listen more and speak less. An anecdote that did the rounds after news of Vialli's death related to his first game as a manager against Arsenal. Vialli remained a resident in London after his career, with the family calling England's capital city home. They also won the Cup Winners' Cup that season as Vialli brought Zola off the bench to score a wonderful winner against Stuttgart. He and Gullit did not always see eye-to-eye and when the Dutchman was sacked in February 1998, the Italian No.9 was appointed player-manager. Luca was the type of player you could imagine thriving in a modern game that continued to fascinate and beguile him until his death. Vialli was 32 when he made his Chelsea debut so could be placed in the latter category. In 1990, England's run to the semifinals of the World Cup in Italy revitalised a national game that had begun to wither amid tragedy and neglect. Chelsea symbolised the decay of English football in the 1980s more explicitly than most, but they swiftly became a glamour club in tune with their surroundings on King's Road in west London. Despite being a shade under six foot, he was no-one's idea of easy work in the air. Marcelo Lippi's side also won the Coppa Italia that year and were only denied a treble in the UEFA Cup final by Parma over two legs, but not before Vialli scored a typically blistering goal. Serie A was the best domestic league on the planet, boasting an all-star cast of players, tactical sophistication and kits and stadiums that looked so damn good.