“He made an entire country dream during the magical nights of the 1990 World Cup. Inter Milan stands by the Schillaci family after the passing of Toto,” the reigning Italian champion, whose jersey Schillaci wore between 1992 and 1994, said in a statement.
Schillaci had been suffering from colon cancer for several months and was hospitalized in intensive care last week.
Although he wore the Juventus jersey (1989-92) and Inter and won the 1990 UEFA Cup with Juve, the pocket-sized striker (1.73 m), trained in Messina, entered the legend of Italian football during the 1990 World Cup held at home, where he finished top scorer with six goals.
Led by the unexpected Schillaci, the Nazionale reached the semi-final where, in Naples, they suffered the law of Diego Maradona’s Argentina on penalties (1-1 ap, 4 tabs to 3) despite the opening of the score by the inevitable “Toto” in the 17th minute.
In the third-place match against England, Schillaci made the difference by scoring a penalty in the 86th minute, shortly after England equalised (2-1).
Schillaci earned his 16th and final cap, not the 17th as initially stated by the FIGC, for the Nazionale, scoring a total of seven goals in 1991.
He ended his career in Japan in 1997.
After leaving the football pitch, he returned to Sicily and set up a football school in Palermo. He appeared in a reality TV show in 2004 and recently took part in the Italian version of the game show “Pekin Express”, revealing on that occasion that he was suffering from cancer.
His disappearance has caused great emotion in Italian football, already very affected in 2023 by the death of another former international, Gianluca Vialli.
“Toto was a great player, the embodiment of tenacity and determination who touched the fans with his football made of passion,” summed up FIGC president Gabriele Gravina.
“Goodbye my dear friend, this time too you surprised me (…) We will forever remain Italian brothers,” wrote his former teammate in the national team Roberto Baggio on his social networks.
