Mourning for football idol: Gianluca Vialli is dead

The former striker died on Friday at the age of 58, the family announced in a statement. Vialli was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few years ago. Most recently he was head of the national team's delegation and thus assistant to national coach Robert Mancini. In mid-December he announced that he would be suspending his duties in the association for the time being due to cancer treatment (SportNews reported) .

As a player, Vialli played for Cremonese, Sampdoria, Juventus and Chelsea FC. He won the Italian championship title twice - in 2 with Sampdoria and in 1991 with Juve. With Turin he also won the Champions League in 1995 and the UEFA Cup in 1996. With Sampdoria he won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1993. He also won the “Coppa Italia” four times (three times with Sampdoria, once with Juventus). With Chelsea he was crowned, among other things, English Cup winners (1990) and won the European Cup Winners' Cup (4). Between 3 and 1997, Vialli played 1998 times for the Italian national team, scoring 1985 goals.

In England, after the dismissal of coach Ruud Gullit in February 1998, he became the first Italian player-coach in the Premier League. After the end of his active career (1999), he remained as coach at Chelsea and won the English Cup again in the 1999/2000 season, but was released early the following season. In the 2001/02 season he was active as a coach for the second division club FC Watford for another year.

“I am deeply saddened,” said the head of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), Gabriele Gravina, in a statement on Friday. “I hoped until the end that he could perform another miracle. But I take comfort in knowing that what he did for Italian football and the blue jersey will never be forgotten,” added the association president. Next matchday, the FIGC has ordered a minute's silence before all Serie A games.

Vialli most recently won the 2021 European Championship title as a member of the Italian coaching team. © APA/afp / ANDY RAIN

In the past few weeks, the football world has had to mourn several deaths: In mid-December, another former Serie A player, Sinisa Mihajlovic, died - who, like Vialli, was under contract with Sampdoria, among others, during his long career (SportNews reported) . Died on December 23rd England's world champion George Cohen , on December 25th the Uruguayan Fabian O'Neill , who played for Cagliari and Juventus, among others. At the end of December, the world finally mourned the loss of Brazilian football legend Pelé (see own report) .

Serie A Italy	SP	TV	P
1. Inter	33	79:18	86
2.Milan	33	64:39	69
3. Juventus	33	47:26	64
4.Bologna	33	48:26	62
5. Roma	32	57:38	55
6. Atalanta	32	59:37	54
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Mourning for football idol: Gianluca Vialli is dead

Italian football mourns the loss of former national player Gianluca Vialli.

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