Another serious mourning for the world of football. Gianluca Vialli has died: at the age of 58, the former striker died in Londonafter battling pancreatic cancer.
Vialli’s family confirmed the death of the former champion with a note. “With immeasurable sadness we announce the passing of Gianluca Vialli – they say -. Surrounded by his family he passed away last night after five years of illness faced with courage and dignity. We thank the many who have supported him over the years with their affection. His memory and example will live forever in our hearts.”
Football mourns Gianluca Vialli and the FIGC has arranged to remember him a minute of silence to be observed before all the matches of the football championships scheduled for next weekend.
“Ciao Gianluca”: this is how Juventus greets Gianluca Vialli, who passed away at the age of 58 due to pancreatic cancer. On social media, the Juventus club wanted to pay homage to the former Juventus player by posting a photo of the former footballer who lifts the Champions League to the sky after the victory in the final in May 1996 against Ajax.
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“We will remember you as a boy and a relentless centre-forward, because heroes are all young and beautiful and you, since that summer of 1984, have been our hero”. Sampdoria thus remembers Gianluca Vialli. (HANDLE)
“Italian sport and football in particular today have lost a champion but above all a solid man”. It is the Coni president’s tribute to Gianluca Vialli Giovanni Malagòwhich recalls one of the many images related to the missing champion. “That of 26 February 2006, when Vialli, together with other illustrious champions, carried the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the Turin 2006 Winter Games, the only footballer to have had this honour” says Malagò.
“What he did for the Azzurri will never be forgotten.” The president of the FIGC, Gabriel Gravina this is how Gianluca Vialli remembers, who passed away today after having fought for a long time with the disease. “I am deeply saddened – adds Gravina – I hoped until the end that he would be able to perform another miracle, yet I am comforted by the certainty that what he did for Italian football and the Azzurri will never be forgotten. Bluntly: Gianluca was a splendid person and he leaves a void that cannot be filled, in the national team and in all those who have appreciated his extraordinary human qualities”.
His Cremona has awakened with death in its hearthurt by news that was basically expected but with that same expectation always accompanied by the hope of a miracle. You have lost your champion, the Lombard capital. And in bars such as in Piazza del Comune, where even the mayor Gianluca Galimberti learned of Stradivialli’s disappearance “with extreme pain”, there is only talk of farewell to the lord of the goal. “The mayor must proclaim a day of mourning for the city” someone goes so far as to ask. For the rest, stories and memories. Luca at Christ the King, then soon at the Cremonese. “Frutti and Vialli, what a couple, would be needed now” let go of some fans suspended between past and present. More than one advances certainties: “now he will find Luzzara and Mondonico, his president and his coach”.
Fedez remembers Gianluca Vialli, with whom he had shared the fears, fears and pains of the disease. Even the singer, in fact, was struck some time ago by a pancreatic tumor, albeit of a different type – and less serious – than the one against which the football star fought. “We have never met in person – Fedez recalls in a story on Instagram – but you have given me so much. I cried with you on the phone, even though I have never seen you in person”. Fedez says that Vialli had shown him great closeness and affection during his illness, and that an acquaintance had arisen, even if only virtual. “We had planned to meet to photograph each other showing each other’s scars, but unfortunately it was not possible”.
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Scudetto Sampdoria, Champions Juve and controversial relationship with Azzurri (ANSA)
“Football loses one of its most beautiful and positively contagious smiles, that of Gianluca Vialli”. Thus begins the memory of Gianni Infantinowith an Instagram post. The Fifa president, in paying homage to the memory of the former striker who died today at the age of 58 in London, spoke of the “smile of those who played and coached. The smile of those who won, dragging the little ones who were growing up into their happiness, like in the days of Sampdoria. The smile kept despite the illness, during his last experience with the Italian national team”. “Vialli – added Infantino – was a great footballer and an intelligent man. One day he saw me dribble and said to me: ‘Gianni, let’s face it, you don’t know how to dribble. I’ll teach you’. And, again, he smiled. It’s right to remember him like this, through his happy expression. He was great, because he had fun and entertained all of us. His passion was the most beautiful definition of football. A huge hug to family and friends.”
