Italy’s World Cup hero Toto Schillaci has died at the age of 59

Italy is mourning the loss of one of its most popular football heroes. Salvatore “Toto” Schillaci, top scorer of the exhilarating 1990 World Cup at home, has died of colon cancer at the age of just 59. “Ciao Toto. Hero of magical nights,” wrote the Italian association on social media. Big words for a big story.

Because Toto Schillaci and the 1990 World Cup in Italy – that was a modern football fairytale. Even if the title was ultimately won by the German team and not the hosts and their previously largely unknown goalscorer.

As a substitute for the World Cup

The fairy tale began at least a year earlier, when Juventus Turin, the most popular and successful club in the country, was looking for a replacement for the attack and brought in the then 24-year-old Schillaci from second division club Messina. He doesn’t cost much. He doesn’t complain if he’s just sitting on the bench. That was the idea behind the transfer – and exactly this calculation was repeated a year later at the World Cup.

Because even then the coach, in this case Azeglio Vicini, was actually just looking for a loyal addition who he could substitute for the big stars Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Baggio or the later national coach Roberto Mancini in an emergency. But just as unexpectedly as Schillaci had shot Juventus to cup and UEFA Cup victory in his first season in the top division, he also became the big star of the World Cup.

«Signor Nessuno» (Mr. Nobody) scored as a substitute in the 1-0 victory against Austria, he scored against Czechoslovakia (2-0), against Uruguay (2-0), against Ireland (1-0), in the semi-final against Argentina (4-5 on penalties) and in the match for third place against England (2-1).

The fans – and not just the Italian ones – loved everything about him this summer: his story, his passionate goal celebrations, his tears after the defeat against Argentina. After the tournament, the top scorer was also voted the best player of the World Cup: ahead of the German world champion captain Lothar Matthäus and Argentina’s football god Diego Maradona.

Second career in politics and jungle camp

“Suddenly even the people who didn’t like me couldn’t say anything anymore,” Schillaci later said about the summer and the tournament of his life. And this sentence says a lot about what “Toto” experienced before and after this World Cup.

Growing up in a poor area of ​​Palermo, the Sicilian first dropped out of school and then completed an apprenticeship at a tire dealer. And from the 1990/91 season onwards, Schillaci hardly scored any goals for Juventus and then for Inter Milan. Even when he became the first Italian professional to move to Japan in 1994, he only had one good season.

“He was the meteor that shone for a summer and then vanished in the football galaxies between Turin, Milan and Tokyo,” the Süddeutsche Zeitung once wrote in its book on the 1990 World Cup.

After his career, Schillaci appeared in the Italian version of the TV jungle camp and was elected to the city council of Palermo. Ironically, the former Inter and Juventus striker stood for “Forza Italia”, the party of long-time AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi.

«Have a good trip, campione»

How much “Toto” and his World Cup fairytale meant to people is evident in every tribute on the day of his death. “Have a safe journey, campione,” wrote Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. “We have lost an icon of football, a man who had penetrated the hearts of the Italians.”

And Schillaci’s former club Juventus wrote in its obituary: “We fell in love with Toto immediately. With his will, his story, his passionate nature; all of this was evident in each of his games. From now on, we will watch his 36 wonderful goal celebrations with a lump in our throats.”