This was confirmed by Sampdoria and Juventus, two clubs Vialli has represented in his illustrious career, on Twitter. Tributes to Vialli poured in on social media.
– You will be missed by many. You are a legend for us and football. Rest in peace, wrote Chelsea on its official Twitter account.
The 58-year-old man had been suffering from cancer for a long time and died in a London hospital today, Friday. Vialli leaves behind a wife and two children.
– No, very sad. What a great man. Great and professional player and manager, Tore André Flo told NRK.
NORSK MAKKER: Here Gianluca Vialli and Tore André Flo celebrate their goals against Vålerenga in the 1999 Cup Winners’ Cup.
Photo: Erik Johansen/NTB
Flo played with Vialli at Chelsea. So does Frode Grodås, who, like Flo, reacts sadly to the news of Vialli’s death.
– No, is he dead? That’s so sad. It wouldn’t be difficult to say anything about him. He is an incredibly good player and a very good person who cares for everyone and looks out for everyone. This is very sad. Now I’m really pissed off, Grodås told NRK, adding:
– He’s just a real role model.
Want to live for the World Cup
In October 2021, Vialli took part in an event organized by his sponsor Puma in Herzogenaurach, Germany. With Karsten Warholm among the guests in the room, Vialli was interviewed by Puma boss at the time, Bjørn Gulden.
Later he also spoke openly about the cancer he clearly had.
– If I start fighting cancer, I will probably lose, he said.
Then he revealed that he had a goal.
– I said to the doctors: “Keep me alive for the football World Cup!”
Thus Vialli caught up to Lionel Messi and Argentina lifted the World Cup trophy in a championship that Italy failed to qualify for.
Italian goal machine
During a long playing career, Vialli played for clubs such as Cremonese, Sampdoria and Juventus, in addition to Chelsea.
He quit in 1999 and then tried his hand as a football coach, managing Chelsea and Watford from the sidelines. He remains in London where he died on Friday.
He also got 59 caps for the Italian national team and scored 16 goals. He helped win WC bronze in 1990.
In 2015 he was inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame and Vialli was one of the first players to be inducted. Only Roberto Baggio, Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi and Fabio Cannavaro outperformed him.
The criteria for being inducted into Hallf Fame are as follows:
“A place in the Italian football Hall of Fame is in honor of a footballing figure who has had a memorable impact on the history of Italian football”.
He was knighted in 1991 and has since also been appointed an officer and commander of the Italian Republic’s Order of Merit.
– What he has done for Italian football and the blue jersey will never be forgotten. Gianluca is an extraordinary person and leaves a void that cannot be filled,” Gabriele Gravina, president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) said in a statement.
There will be a minute of silence at the next round of Italian football in Vialli’s honor.
He’s won as much as there is to win: Champions League, Serie A, FA Cup, Coppa Italia and UEFA Cup, to name a few.
Vialli, considered one of the best Italian strikers of his generation, was a very versatile striker. He scores, and scores all kinds of goals. He is quick, strong, tactically savvy and not only a leading goalscorer, but also a skilled facilitator.
HIT: Gianluca Vialli, here from his Chelsea days, celebrates a goal in a 6-0 win over Barnsley in 1997.
Photo: IAN HODGSON / Reuters
He was part of the Roberto Mancini support team that won the European football Championship in 2021. The two were striker partners at Sampdoria in the 1990s and formed the fearsome striker pairing that led Sampdoria to league gold in 1991. The Mancini/Vialli radar pairing is nicknamed “destination twins”.
The two cried to each other after Italy’s win against England at Wembley in the 2021 European Championship final:
CRY OF JOY: Roberto Mancini and Gianluca Vialli, who have shared so many moments, wept with joy after one of the greatest achievements: the European Championship title in 2021.
Photo: Christian Charisius/AP
When Juventus signed him from Sampdoria in 1992, they made him the world’s most expensive player. He was not the world’s most expensive player for a long time, as AC Milan set a new world record when they signed Gianluigi Lentini from Turin.
“The famous snow fight”
In 2018 he first told me about pancreatic cancer. In 2020 he said he was cancer free, but in December 2021 he stated that the cancer had returned.
This led to him then taking a break from his job with the Italian national team.
In 1997, as a Chelsea player, he played against Tromsø in the famous “snow game” at Alfheim. Ole Martin Årst also played in that game. Speaking to NRK, he recalled what it was like to play against Vialli.
– All I remember is that he was one of the few people who didn’t whine and complain about the weather and playing conditions. He made the most of it, and it’s no coincidence he scored twice in Alfheim.
– It’s so sad to hear that. Based on what little I’ve experienced, he seems like an extraordinary man. He is a star without the will of a prima donna. That’s our perception of him after two games, said Årst.
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