After Sinisa Mihajlović farewell also to another much-loved soccer champion and to a true gentleman: he has also left us Gianluca vialli, goalscorer for Sampdoria first and Juve then and of course for the national team where he was the head of delegation until a few days ago.
Vialli had been fighting for five years against a cursed man pancreatic cancer and in the last few hours he has had to surrender. He died at the age of 58 in a London clinic, surrounded by family. That things were going badly for Vialli had already seemed clear a few days ago when he announced he had to give up the role of head of the delegation of the Italian national team, which he had taken over in 2019 by replacing another icon of Italian football such as Gigi Riva. After the death of Mihajlovic, that of Vialli throws the world in football in despondency blacker and someone, like the president of Lazio Lotito, goes so far as to say that perhaps there is something suspicious in these deaths in the care that was given to the two players at the time.
Vialli: "I hope the cancer gets tired of me", but unfortunately it didn't make it
“At the end of a long and difficult negotiation with my wonderful team of oncologists, I decided to suspend, hopefully temporarily – announced Vialli on 15 December – my present and future professional commitments: the goal is to use all the my psycho-physical energies to help my body overcome this phase of the disease". “I hope cancer gets tired of me” he said some time ago: unfortunately it didn't go like this and Vialli didn't make it.
Vialli: his hug and tears after Italy's victory at the 2021 European Championship
His death is heartbreaking for Italian football and also for English football, because he had played and coached the Chelsea and lived with his family in London. In the eyes of all Italian sportsmen there is still the image of Vialli's embrace and tears with his twin Roberto Mancini after the resounding victory of Italy in London in European championship on 11 July 2021.
Vialli, like Mihajlovic, was one of those champions - on the pitch and in life - that sportsmen would never want to lose. Everyone remembers him when, after his debut in the Cremonese, he had become the centre-forward Sampdoria who won the Scudetto in 1989. And everyone remembers it when in the Juve he won the championship in 1995 and then the Champions at the Olimpico in Rome. And they also remember it in National, as a footballer and number one collaborator of his great friend Mancini.
Vialli was a great champion but also a true gentleman: elegant, friendly, helpful with everyone and always with a smile on his face. But sometimes life can be cruel.
