The former footballer of Sampdoria, Chelsea, Cremonese and Juventus had been suffering from pancreatic cancer since 2017.
Former Italian football star Gianluca Vialli has died of cancer at the age of 58, his former football club Sampdoria reported on Friday.
Vialli, who enjoyed a stellar career with Sampdoria, Juventus and Chelsea and scored 59 times for Italy, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2017. He was released a year later, but the disease returned.
“I know I probably won’t die of old age, I hope to live as long as possible, but I feel much more fragile than before,” Vialli said in a Netflix documentary that aired in March 2022.
He described Cancer as “a fellow traveler” who he hoped would eventually leave him alone, after testing his mettle. “Illness can teach you a lot about who you are, and it can push you beyond the superficial way we live,” he said.
However, Vialli was forced to step down from his role as head of a delegation to the Italian national team last month as he said he needed to focus on overcoming a new phase of his illness.
Working with the Italy national team, Vialli was reunited with national coach Roberto Mancini, a lifelong friend and attacking partner when they both played for Sampdoria, where they were known as ‘the goal-scoring twins’.
Vialli and Mancini led the Italians to Euro 2021 and lifted the trophy at Wembley Stadium, where their Sampdoria side had lost the European Cup final to Barcelona 29 years earlier.
Last year they celebrated with a tearful embrace that was “more fun than the hugs we gave each other when I passed the ball to him and he scored goals,” Vialli said in a televised interview with Italy’s RAI in November.
Source: La Verdad
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