For one summer, Salvatore “Toto” Schillaci was Italy’s hero. The pyrotechnician of the “magic nights” of the 1990 World Cup died on Wednesday, September 18, at the Civil Hospital in Palermo, where he had been transferred in a serious condition ten days earlier. The former Azzurri international had been battling colon cancer. He was 59 years old.
This son of a mason, born on 1er December 1964 in a poor neighborhood of the Sicilian capital, was never fooled by his accomplishments. “My career, in a way, lasted three weeks”he acknowledged. One season, 1989-1990, would probably be more accurate. At that time, the striker, who had languished for a long time in the second and third Italian divisions, finally discovered the elite under the colours of Juventus Turin. It was there that he would blossom in the eyes of football fans, before winning the hearts of the general public under the jersey of the national team during the World Cup at home.
His performances in Piedmont – twenty-one goals in all competitions in fifty games with Juve, winners of the Italian Cup and the UEFA Cup – opened the doors to the national team for him on 31 March 1990, when Italy faced Switzerland in a friendly match. However, it was not possible to imagine that his name would appear on the list of twenty-two players selected by Azeglio Vicini for the big summer gathering.
But, to everyone’s surprise, the player, then aged 25, was retained. In a squad with many attacking talents – Gianluca Vialli, Andrea Carnevale, Roberto Mancini and Roberto Baggio –, the player knows that he will be confined to the role of substitute. Two minutes, during the opening match against Austria, at the Olympic stadium in Rome, will help change the situation. Preferred to Baggio to replace Carnevale, in the 76the minute, the Sicilian opened the scoring with a header after barely coming into the game, giving his team the victory (1-0).
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Vialli was injured, Schillaci was included in the starting eleven. Better still, he found the back of the net in six of Italy’s seven matches in the tournament. “In football there are times when everything goes your wayhe analyzed, years later. You just have to breathe and the ball goes into the goal. I was in a state of grace, that’s all.” For a long time, “Toto” Schillaci saw this as a sign of divine intervention.
“With my goals I reunited Italy”
The tifosi, for their part, vibrate for this stranger with big, excited eyes, “this bundle of muscles and anger who, the previous year, was still playing in Serie B, in Messina, for this “terrone” [terme péjoratif désignant les Italiens du Sud] who struggled to conjugate the subjunctive but who, when he did, seemed possessed by a demon”wrote The Stampin 2011. “With my goals I reunited Italy”he said during the World Cup. ” [Ses] irrepressible celebrations, in which his face was a symbol of shared joy, will forever remain the common heritage”reacted Gabriele Gravina, the president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), to the announcement of his death.
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