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Gianluca Vialli emerged at Cremonese and triumphed with Sampdoria and Juventus before joining Chelsea in the Premier League.
The Italian Gianluca Vialli, one of the most emblematic soccer players of the 90s and Champions League champion with Juventus in 1996, died this Friday at the age of 58.
The forward was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2017 and said that he had overcome the disease three years later, but it relapsed in 2021.
In December, he announced that he was temporarily leaving his position on the coaching staff of the Italian national team to focus on his health.
“Gianluca was a splendid person and a void is being left that cannot be filled,” Italian Football Federation president Gabriele Gravina said.
Idyll with the goal
Vialli emerged in the team from his city, the Cremonese, which he helped to climb to Serie B of Italian football.
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Gianluca Vialli (left) and Roberto Mancini formed one of the most fearsome and recognizable forwards in Italian football in the 1990s.
A relentless striker, he was signed by Sampdoria and together with Roberto Mancini they led what was the most glorious era of the Genoa teamwinning the title in 1991, three Italian Cups and the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1990.
They also reached the European Cup final in 1992, which they lost to Barcelona at Wembley.
Right after, he signed for Juventus for a sum that was then a world record. Once there he continued to accumulate goals and titles to his credit, such as the Champions League.
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Vialli lifting the “Orejona” trophy as European champion with Juventus.
After that triumph he was transferred to Chelsea in 1996 and two years later he became coach of the London team with which he won the League Cup, the Cup Winners’ Cup and the Uefa Cup.
In his showcase of titles also appears the English Association Cup, the 2000 FA Cup, and more recently the Europe that he won with Italy as part of the coaching staff of his friend, Mancini.
“You will be missed by many. A legend for us and for all football“, was the farewell that Chelsea published on social networks.
