Farewell to Schillaci, those flashes of the Magic Nights
He appeared like a flash of lightning from the magical nights and was immediately Totò, a Sicilian boy transformed in his eyes and in his plays into a national hero. Italian football said goodbye to Salvatore Schillaci, to whom he had suddenly entrusted his dream of the World Cup in 1990: he died at the age of 59 from cancer that had worsened his condition in recent weeks. He came from Serie B but, touched by the grace of the ball, he played and scored like a champion: he scored six goals in that tournament. It was not enough for Italy to win the title, but it was enough for this striker with video game movements to become an idol: with his crazy eyes and his arms raised to the sky, he represented the dream of those summer nights.
The national team led by Vicini finished third amid many doubts and controversies, eliminated in Naples in the semi-finals by Maradona's Argentina: Schillaci nevertheless won the titles of top scorer and best player of the competition. If Italian football is marked by the regrets of this adventure badly led on several fronts, it is totally free of them: “As a child, I dreamed of being a footballer and, at the same time, I fulfilled all my wishes: for example, playing for Juve. I would have settled for little, but football gave me everything: glory, victories, money”, he said in an interview some time ago. Born in Palermo on December 1, 1964, after missing out on a transfer to his hometown team for a few million lire, Schillaci, who played for AMAT, was bought by Messina in 1982, when he was not yet 18 years old. After scoring 11 goals in total in his first 3 seasons, he scored as many in his fourth, contributing decisively to the Sicilians' promotion to Serie B. In the cadet category, managed by Franco Scoglio, he played for three more seasons, scoring 13 goals in 1987-88 and even 23 in 1988-89, when he was top scorer with Zdenek Zeman on the bench.
It was this season that launched him into the world of football, with Juventus, who bought him for 6 billion lire. In his first season, he became a regular, scoring 15 goals in 30 league games. He made a decisive contribution to Juventus' victories in the Coppa Italia and the UEFA Cup. These excellent performances convinced coach Azeglio Vicini to call him up for the 1990 World Cup. Schillaci started on the bench as a reserve for Carnival. In the second half of the opening match against Austria, the match was still 0-0. Totò came on and after four minutes scored the goal that allowed the Azzurri to win the match. Inevitably, Schillaci became the regular in the Italian attack with Roberto Baggio and scored in all the subsequent matches played by the Azzurri. In short, he became the symbol of Italy in the 90s. But in the following seasons, his star faded. He began to score less and less, tormented also by a separation in the tabloids with his first wife Rita Bonaccorso: during a match against Bologna, he threatened the opponent Fabio Poli by telling him “I will make you shoot”.
At the end of the 1991-1992 season, with the arrival of Gianluca Vialli in black and white, Schillaci, finding less and less space, left the Turin club. He then joined Inter for 8.5 billion lire, scoring 11 goals in 30 games in two seasons and participating in the Nerazzurri's victorious run to the UEFA Cup, even if he left the club in April 1994. Transfer to Japan Júbilo Iwata where he became the first Italian footballer to play in the Japanese championship. In 1997 he won the J. League with his team, but also suffered a serious injury that permanently relegated him away from the playing field, until his official retirement in 1999.
After hanging up his boots, Schillaci returned to Palermo where, in 2001, he ran as a city councilor for Forza Italia.
Elected, he resigned after a few years. In 2004 he participated in the reality show “The Island of the Famous” and in 2008 he participated in the film “Love, Lies and Football” with other former footballers. In 2011 he played the role of a mafia boss in an episode of “Squadra antimafia – Palermo Oggi”. The following year he made an appearance in an episode of the series “Welcome to the Table – North Against South”. With Andrea Mercurio, in 2016 he published the autobiography “The goal is everything”. In 2019 he improvised as a rapper and participated in the single “Gli anni degli anni” by 78 Bit. In 2021, he participated as a competitor in the TV show “Back to School”, in 2023, with his wife Barbara, he reached the semi-final of the reality show “Beijing Express”: a glimpse of popularity for the one who in another semi-final, in 1990, was able to make more than 27 million viewers dream.
