Death of footballer “Toto” Schilacci, improbable hero of the 1990 World Cup who “reunified Italy” – Libération

“Toto” the hero is missing. Arriving from nowhere to burn down the World Cup that Italy organized thirty-four years ago only to leave almost immediately once the fuss was over, Salvatore Schillaci‚ “player-symbol of World Cup 1990», died at the age of 59 in Palermo, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) announced this Wednesday, September 18. The former player announced last year that he was suffering from colon cancer and had been hospitalized in intensive care since last week.

We rewind the story of Toto, a pure Sicilian and pocket size for a footballer (1.73 m), who carried his origins as a footballer on his face and in his appearance. terronne (“ass-earthy”) as the Northern Italians despised their compatriots from the deep South. Among the first, the supporters of Juventus in Turin, where he arrived in 1989, quick to mock his approximate oral expression before succumbing to the efficiency of the scorer and the simplicity of the man.

Schilacci, however, was not a child of the earth but of the asphalt, that of a working-class neighborhood of Palermo where he was born. At the Schillacis, we don’t roll on the lire, Salvatore does a lot of odd jobs while showing, on the football fields, a desire and a rage to score which impresses all the coaches he meets. From the Palermo public transport company club, he moved to Messina, which he led from the 4th to the 2nd division then to Juventus, with whom he had a successful 1989-1990 season: Italian Cup, UEFA Cup, 21 goals.

“My career, in a way, lasted three weeks”

Not enough to give him the audacity to block the door of the Nazionale, which is preparing to play the 1990 World Cup at home, with a crampon. He was called up at the last minute by coach Azeglio Vicini. HAS the Teamin 2014, he said: “It was incredible news. I called my parents in Palermo, it was beautiful. I was happy to be there, even if I had no illusions. I said to myself: “At least you will be in the stands, you will be able to see the matches up close.” Holder, on the other hand, it was clearly impossible.

Substitute during the first match, he comes in and scores. In a state of grace, he will no longer leave the team and stacks the pawns. He scored a fifth goal in Italy’s defeat against Maradona’s Argentina (1-2) and a sixth against England in the match for third place (1-1, 4 tab to 3). Six goals which make him the best scorer of this World Cup. Six achievements that he celebrated by crossing the field with a hallucinated look, which will be remembered as much as his ability to rise above the defenders. Six goals that abolish the symbolic border between the North and the South of Italy: “I reunified Italy”he even says during the competition.

After the World Cup, he played eight times for the national team (the last in September 1991), scoring only once. After two lackluster seasons at Juventus then at Inter, he was the first Italian player to sign a golden contract for Japan before returning to Palermo in 2000 to take care of a football school. “My career, in a way, lasted three weeks. But I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world for titles.”he said. Toto Schillaci did not ride the wave of sporting success but the enchanted interlude of the summer of 1990 reserved a special place in the hearts of Italians for this man with such an endearing personality, who we also saw in the versions transalpines of Celebrity Island or Beijing express.