Gianluca Vialli, a former football star for Italy, has passed away at the age of 58 due to cancer.
The striker’s previous team Sampdoria announced his passing on Friday.
Vialli, who was born in 1964 in Cremona in northern Italy, had a distinguished career with English club Chelsea as well as Italian clubs Sampdoria and Juventus. He also won 59 caps for his country.
He was initially given the all-clear from pancreatic cancer in 2017, but the disease returned after he received it.
In a Netflix documentary aired in March, Vialli described cancer as “a travel companion” that he hoped would eventually leave him in peace, after testing his mettle.
“Illness can teach a lot about who you are, and can push you to go beyond the superficial way in which we live,” he said.
He assisted former Sampdoria attack partner and national coach Roberto Mancini during Italy’s title-winning Euro 2020 campaign in spite of the disease.
In 2021, Vialli and Mancini led Italy to the competition, winning the trophy there 29 years after their Sampdoria club had lost to Barcelona in the European Cup final.
Vialli remarked in a November television interview with Italy’s RAI that their tearful embrace was “more beautiful than the hugs we used to give one other after I threw him the ball and he scored goals.”
Last month, Vialli was forced to step aside from his role as head of a delegation with the Italian national team, saying he needed to focus on overcoming a new phase of his disease.
“I know that I probably will not die of old age, I hope to live as long as possible, but I feel much more fragile than before,” he said in the documentary.
Before joining Juventus in 1992 for a then-record 16.5 million euro transfer fee, Vialli established himself in Sampdoria over the course of eight seasons, winning the Serie A championship and European Cup Winners’ Cup.
Before joining Chelsea in 1996 and taking on the role of player-manager in 1998, he won the Champions League while playing for Juventus.
Late in the season, Vialli took over for the fired Ruud Gullit, and he later helped Chelsea win the League Cup, UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, and UEFA Super Cup.
Additionally, he led Chelsea to victory in the FA Cup final in 2000 before being fired the following year.
The Genoa-based Sampdoria gave the football star a last farewell in a statement. “We have come a long way together, growing and searching, winning and dreaming. You came as a boy, we salute you as a man,” it said.
Vialli’s death comes days after the passing of 82-year-old Brazilian football legend Pele, who had a tumour removed from his colon last year.
Another Serie A great, Siniša Mihajlović, died last month after a long battle with leukaemia. Mihajlović also played with Mancini at Sampdoria after Vialli left the club for Juventus.