In the extraordinary career of Gianluca Vialli, on and off the football fields, there is only one goal he has failed to achieve. Guest of Pressing on Italy 1, Massimo Mauro unveiled a new, heartwarming backstory about his friend who passed away on Epiphany day in London at the age of 58, after 5 spent battling a pancreatic cancer. The disease didn’t stop him from realizing one of his dreams: to become champion of Europe with the national team, right in London in July 2021, albeit not as a player but as manager of the blue expedition. A form of compensation for the two great disappointments suffered a Euro 1988 and above all to Italia 90when the team coached by coach Azeglio Neighbors and with Vialli starting at the center of the attack he always came out in the semifinals against Russia first and Argentina Maradona then, while certainly deserving something more.
A pearl, that of Wembley, which adds to the great satisfactions gathered in the previous 40 years: having brought the Cremona in Serie A, having won a historic one scudetto with Sampdoria in 1991 and an equally historic one Champions with Juventus in 1996 (as captain, the last of the black and whites), having conquered the hearts of English fans with the Chelsea, as confirmed by the thousands of tributes after his disappearance. “The only thing he hasn’t been able to do in his life, I can say now because he confided it to me – explained Mauro – concerns the Samp! He would have liked to take care of Sampdoria, become its president, but he didn’t succeed”. In fact, in recent months there had been rumors about a new international consortium, led by Vialli, interested in taking over the club in crisis given the economic and judicial problems of the president Massimo Ferrero.
“In the last conversations I had with him – continued the former Juventus and Napoli footballer, the only one who can say he played alongside legends like Zico, Platini and Maradona -, in the brief moments of lucidity he had between one treatment and another, I can say that I saw the usual Luca, as he always was, serene, also thanks to his family, his wife and his daughters who are always stay close, extraordinary people”.
