Everyone at The Gentleman Ultra was devastated to learn of the tragically early death of Italian footballing icon Gianluca Vialli. Here, some of our contributors share their personal feelings about the passing of a legend.
Richard Hall, Founder of The Gentleman Ultra
It is hard to accept any passing of a football icon that has benefited the game and your own personal experiences so much. With Gianluca Vialli it is harder since his illness took him away too soon.
I first remember him back in 1988 watching him on Sky as he dazzled for Sampdoria giving them so much success. I remember when Football Italia hit our screens (in fact the first game featured Sampdoria). The show was famous for off-kilter interviews and host James Richardson would often have fun with this humble man who was a global super star – the jokes about ‘bald men being more sexy’ between the two were a particular favourite of mine. Even as an Inter fan, I was in awe as he moved to Juventus and not only did he win there but he did it with the same care-free way and of course more brilliant goals. It was sad when he moved away from Italy but as Chelsea became ‘little Italy’ in the 1990’s, he continued to impress.
Italia 90, the reason I am besotted with Italy, featured him and in a game that I love and in a country I adore, Vialli was always a constant in some very influential years for me. He was certainly a huge part of my childhood, my adolescent years and even up to this date, as Italy were so successful in the Euro’s, my life now. I can’t imagine Italian football without Vialli featuring in it in some way and it is cruel that he has passed away so young. However, the joyous side of Gianluca, is that there are so many people he managed to touch and whether that be his family, his friends, Roberto Mancini or the many players and fans who either knew him or saw him play from near or far, they all loved him.
Henry Bell, Co-Editor
Some footballers stay with you for that did on the pitch, others for how they conducted themselves off it. Very few manage to touch the hearts of tifosi through both. Gianluca Vialli was one of these rare breeds who was both a wonderful player and human being.
As a kid I loved watching him on Channel 4. I was too young to watch his magic for Sampdoria so my memories of him are in the black and white of Juventus. The match which stays with me was shortly after my twelfth birthday in May 1995. I had found out recently that my family was up rooting themselves from the north of England (where I had lived my entire life) to Brighton. I glued myself in front of the television to hide away from the sadness and, that day, the glamour of Juve and Parma (despite my Napoli allegiances) brought some joy into my life. I vividly remember Vialli playing alongside Roberto Baggio and Fabrizio Ravanelli – he scored one and set up another as Juve picked up their 23rd Scudetto. His footballing talents were on a different planet to the games I saw played in England.
Years later he signed for Chelsea. My grandma was a huge Chelsea fan and went to her first game at Stamford Bridge in the 1930’s. She saw a lot of players over her 106 years on the planet and Gianluca was one of her favourites. I remember many a conversation with her about about ‘the fantastic Italians’ and she was also a huge fan of the way he conducted himself as manager. She worked as a fashion journalist for 50 years so appreciated the way he turned himself out. Anyone who knew my grandma would understand that kind of praise was rarely dished out.
Rest well, Luca.
Emmet Gates, Co-editor
Gianluca Vialli was an integral part of early foray into football. My love affair with Italian football started in the 1994/95 season, Vialli’s best season with Juventus, and as a then seven-year-old, seeing the bald Vialli alongside the silver fox Fabrizio Ravanelli and the ponytailed-mystique of Roby Baggio seemed a world away from the mundane goings on of mid ’90s Premier League.
His move to Chelsea in the summer of 1996 was seen as a major coup for the Premier League, and in hindsight it can be seen as the beginning of the league’s true rise to mega stardom, signing a player still in demand and at the top of his game. It amazes me that he never got over 60 caps for Italy, scandalous when you think of his quality, but off the pitch Vialli seemed one of the coolest men alive. He didn’t take the game too seriously, but he was the ultra professional when playing.
His relationship with Roberto Mancini will ultimately be the thing that defines Vialli in a football sense, and what the two achieved at Sampdoria now seems near herculean. He and Mancini went beyond football, two brothers that shared an unbreakable bond.
R.I.P Luca, you were one of Italy’s most charismatic strikers, and a bloody good one at that.
Giancarlo Rinaldi, TGU contributor and host of the Rigore podcast
I was up in the hills of Tuscany when I first clapped eyes on Gianluca Vialli. Sampdoria did their pre-season training at Il Ciocco in Garfagnana and I was told by friends to make sure I got the autograph of a guy who was going to do great things. They were not wrong.
That Doria side was a glorious, fun-loving group with the striker and his attacking “twin” Roberto Mancini at its helm. It is easy to forget exactly what they achieved to take the Blucerchiati to the Scudetto in a league usually dominated by the same handful of sides. The pace, power and athleticism of their talismanic front man was envied by clubs across Italy and beyond.
He went on, of course, to star for both Juventus and Chelsea and gather up a string of trophies that his talents more than deserved before going on to pick up more silverware as a manager. Maybe the national team did not deliver the goals and glory we hoped for but nobody could ever doubt his total commitment to the cause.
When he became part of the Italy set-up under Mancini – despite his serious illness – he was an inspiration to a new generation of players. Watching the documentary of the Azzurri’s Euro 2020 triumph underlined the important part he had in the historic victory. A leader, a warrior and a gentleman – they don’t make many like Gianluca Vialli.
Frank Risorto – TGU Podcast Host and Contributor
Gianluca Vialli was one the first players as a child I grew to despise.
Why was he always involved in various comebacks, matchwinners and individual moments of brilliance for his side, whether it was for Sampdoria or Juventus? Why didn’t my side have someone willing to fight for their jersey, lead their side over the metaphoric hill regardless of the opponent and situation, he’d do anything it took for his side to win. I quickly realised it wasn’t that I didn’t like him, it was that I was jealous of every team that had him.
I wanted a ‘Gianluca Vialli’ for my team, a goal scorer, a talisman, a captain, and a leader.
There’s a fundamental Maori spiritual concept called ‘Whakapapa — the rope of mankind’, an unbroken chain of humans standing arm to arm to the end of eternity. As the sun shines on you for this moment, this is your time, your obligation and responsibility to add to the legacy, in other words — to leave the jersey in a better place.
True leaders can outlast the competition by being stewards of the future and with time spent in Cremona, at Sampdoria, Turin, or London, no one can accuse Gianluca Vialli of not leaving his jersey in a better place than when he first found it.
Gianluca Vialli was and is the perfect essence of ‘being a good ancestor’.
Remember that our life is made 10 per cent by what happens to us and 90 per cent by the way we react to it; if we change the way we look at things, things begin to change.
Gianluca Vialli
Stephen Kasiewicz, TGU Contributor
Gianluca Vialli: the player, the legend.
More than 100 photos of all shapes and sizes cut out from magazines and newspapers accompanied the grand headline on my meticulously arranged self-made poster. It grew so big that it became difficult to attach it to the bedroom wall I shared with my brother.
Vialli was, it seems surreal to talk about the great man in the past tense, my football hero. As a football obsessed teenager I made it my mission to collect every scrap of information on him. His spectacular goals, especially the outrageous volleys and perfectly executed overhead kicks at Sampdoria and Juventus, remain fond memories of a wonderful time watching Football Italia on Channel 4.
Talented, charismatic and inspirational he led Samp to their only Scudetto in 1991 and achieved European success at both Doria and Juve. Italia ’90 sparked my interest in Italian football and although his time with the Azzurri was full of highs and lows, he will be remembered as one of the greatest Italian forwards of all time.
Samp’s unlucky European Cup defeat against Barcelona at Wembley in 1992 – I still have it somewhere on tape – still stings even decades later. It made Italy’s Euro 2020 victory all the sweeter as Vialli and goal twin Roberto Mancini passionately embraced on the same pitch where they had experienced such disappointment.
Of course it’s easy to overstate the importance of football, but watching Vialli gave me such a great pleasure. I’m not ashamed to admit I shed a tear upon hearing the sad news.
Thank you for everything Luca.
Martin Dunlop, TGU Contributor
My enduring image of Gianluca Vialli is his role in Italy’s Euro 2020 success.
Three decades on from Sampdoria’s Scudetto victory, here he was, once again, alongside his ‘Goal Twin’, Azzurri manager Roberto Mancini. The Netflix documentary that followed Italy’s Euro 2020 campaign captured some terrific moments of friendship between the pair, and the respect shown by the players to the ‘Goal Twins’ was obvious. Vialli’s playing career was incredible – and he was one of the key figures in the Channel 4 Football Italia era – but Euro 2020 let us see another side to him.
And what about those suits? Stylish to the end.
Rest in Peace, Luca
