Luca the Great
The
birth of Gianluca Vialli took place on 9th July 1964 in Cremona,
Italy. He was born into a privileged background, but wanted to make it on his
own and playing the sport he loved for a living was his aim.
Luca’s
professional career began at hometown club Cremonese in 1980. He scored 23
goals in 105 appearances leading to a big move to Genoese giants Sampdoria four
years after his pro debut.
At
Sampdoria he teamed up with childhood friend and fellow striker Roberto
Mancini, forming a partnership that earned the pair the nickname ‘The Goal
Twins’. They made up part of a formidable squad at Samp which delivered the
club’s first-ever Scudetto success in 1991, as well as a Cup Winners’ Cup
triumph in 1990, a European Cup runners-up medal in ’92 (after a loss to the ‘Dream
Team’ of Barcelona) and three Coppa Italia triumphs in a golden era for the ‘Blucerchiati’;
Vialli himself ended the league-winning campaign as Serie A top-scorer with 19
goals.
It
was while at Sampdoria that Vialli made his international debut for Italy
against Poland in 1985. The young striker made it into the squad for the World
Cup of ’86 before his first goal for his country arrived in 1986 versus Malta
in a qualifying match for the European Championships. He featured and scored in
the Euro ’88 finals and went on to represent his nation at the 1990 World Cup
in his homeland, helping Italy to a third-place finish in that competition.
After
the loss to FC Barcelona in May 1992 at Wembley, Vialli decided to move on to
Juventus in a massive £12.5 million deal, a world record fee at the time. The
powerful forward possibly felt he’d gone as far as he could with Samp and a switch
to the Turin-based giants was tempting enough to prise him away from Genoa.
Despite
the exciting move to a new club, Vialli’s international career was on a
downward spiral. Though one of the most feared strikers in world
football, a disagreement between the player and his national coach Arrigo
Sacchi resulted in a final international appearance for his country in 1992, in
which he scored against Malta in a World Cup qualifier. He was left out of
subsequent squads, including the line-up that travelled to the USA for the
World Cup finals of 1994.
His
club career was still on the up, though; Juventus clinching a league and cup double in 1995, along with a runners-up spot to fellow Italians Parma in the
UEFA Cup of the same year. Vialli plundered 16 goals that season to propel Juve
to that hugely successful year, including a fantastic strike in the second leg
of the UEFA Cup final.
The
following season, Vialli’s painful memories of European Cup heartache four
years earlier were banished by his captaincy of Juventus on their way to
Champions League triumph over Ajax, capping a glorious spell with the ‘Bianconeri’.
The
next move of his illustrious career was to join the exodus of many top Italian league
players to the English Premier League in 1996, joining Chelsea at the age of 32
for a bargain sum of £600,000. Another former Samp favourite Ruud Gullit was at
the helm of the Stamford Bridge outfit and Vialli formed part of a
stylish team that the Dutchman was trying to construct at the time.
Vialli,
the bald-headed assassin, enjoyed something of an ‘Indian summer’ with Chelsea,
winning the FA Cup in his first campaign with the club. Unfortunately, due to
differences of opinion with Ruud Gullit, he became an increasingly peripheral figure,
especially in the second season. However, Gullit got canned by the club in
February 1998 and Vialli was installed as player-manager of the Blues in his
place.
Gianluca
Vialli was a strong presence up front, with a fabulous instinct for goals, and he
is fondly remembered by fans of all the clubs he played for to this day; Luca
was one of the greatest Italian strikers of all-time.
Follow me on Twitter: @davewh1980
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