https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/gianluca-vialli-1964-2023
Gianluca Vialli 1964-2023
06 JAN 23
Everyone associated with Chelsea Football Club is devastated to learn of the
passing of Gianluca Vialli, our former player and manager, at the age of just
58.
As soon as he walked through the door at Stamford Bridge when already a
global football star, Luca declared his wish to become a Chelsea legend. It
is a target he undoubtedly reached, revered for his work on the pitch and in
the dugout during some of the most successful years in our history. Loved by
fans, players and staff at Stamford Bridge, Luca will be sorely missed not
just by the Chelsea community, but the entire footballing world, including in
his native Italy, where he was such an iconic figure.
Our thoughts are with Luca’s wife Cathryn, his daughters Sofia and Olivia,
and the rest of his family and his friends at this terribly sad time.
Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly and co-controlling owner Behdad Eghbali said: ‘
This is truly an awful day for Chelsea Football Club. Gianluca’s legend will
live on at Stamford Bridge. His impact as a player, a coach and most
importantly as a person, will be forever written across our club’s history.
We send our heartfelt and deepest condolences to his family and friends.’
Luca Vialli arrived at Stamford Bridge in the summer of 1996, shortly after
skippering Juventus to Champions League glory. Considered one of the best
strikers of his generation, his capture by another former Serie A great, his
long-time friend Ruud Gullit, further underlined the steep upward curve
Chelsea were on.
https://imgur.com/RzetT6A
What was missing at the Bridge was silverware, and in his first season Luca
played a pivotal role in bringing a first major trophy to SW6 since 1971.
Trailing 2-0 to Liverpool at half-time, our FA Cup aspirations were hanging
by a thread. At a frenzied Stamford Bridge, though, the Blues turned a
fourth-round tie on its head, Vialli completing the comeback with a brace.
The 4-2 win remains one of Chelsea’s greatest days.
They were vintage Vialli goals, too. The first, a classy outside-of-the-boot
finish after latching on to a Dan Petrescu pass; the second, a powerful
header following the type of electric movement in the box Vialli had long
made his name with.
His other attributes as an all-round striker were his strength and hold-up
play, the foundation for accurate finishing with either foot, as well as a
fondness for catching opponents unawares with shots struck early and often to
the near post.
https://imgur.com/5TBgStK
The former Italian international finished his first season at Stamford Bridge
with 11 goals in 34 games. Gullit increasingly preferred a pairing of
Gianfranco Zola and Mark Hughes up front, meaning several of those
appearances were off the bench, including in the FA Cup final, won with a 2-0
victory over Middlesbrough. After the semi-final, in which Vialli had been an
unused sub, captain Dennis Wise revealed a vest saying ‘Cheer up Luca, we
love you xx’.
It epitomised the sentiment towards a man who had already made himself hugely
popular with players and fans alike. Charming, self-effacing and determined,
the urbane Vialli’s determination to adopt popular sayings from the English
language and the manner in which he embraced London life contributed to that
immense likeability.
https://imgur.com/WKcpgaw
Goals helped, too. He scored what would prove the winner at Old Trafford in
November ’96, nutmegging Peter Schmeichel and celebrating in front of the
travelling Blues contingent. That magical moment was soon commemorated in
song, to the tune of That’s Amore, heard up and down the country, and later
over Europe: ‘When the ball hits the back of the Old Trafford net, that’s
Vialli!’ The love between player and fanbase was very real indeed.
That connection only intensified midway through the 1997/98 campaign, one in
which Vialli had bagged four goals in a game for the first time in his
illustrious career, in a win at Barnsley, and netted a famously defiant brace
in the Tromso snow. Following the shock departure of Gullit in February ‘98,
Vialli took the reins at Stamford Bridge a few days before the second leg of
a League Cup semi-final at home to Arsenal. Now player-manager, the Italian
selected himself and the dressing room toasted the occasion with pre-match
champagne.
The touch of class Gullit brought to the Bridge would be further extended
under Vialli, who also had the happy knack of winning important matches.
Arsenal were overcome and the Blues won the League Cup final, swiftly
followed by the Cup Winners’ Cup. For the first of those finals he did not
involve himself on the pitch, for the second he did, although it was his
fellow star from Serie A, Zola, who scored the only goal seconds after being
brought off the bench. It was Vialli who finished the team’s top scorer that
season.
https://imgur.com/CPqK3AG
When victory over Real Madrid added the UEFA Super Cup to make a unique
treble in the 1998 calendar year, Vialli had eclipsed his predecessors,
writing his name into Blues history as our most successful manager in terms
of trophies lifted. Even now, only Jose Mourinho has won more than his five
as our coach.
Vialli continued as player-manager in 1998/99, although he restricted himself
to just 20 on-pitch appearances, mostly in cup competitions. Highlights
included a hat-trick against Aston Villa, on a night he handed John Terry his
Chelsea debut, a brace at Highbury, also in the League Cup, and the winning
goal in his final game as a professional, a 2-1 Premiership win over Derby on
the last day of the season.
It brought the curtain down on a campaign in which we had gone as close as we
ever did to winning the title between 1955 and 2005. We eventually finished
third, just four points off Manchester United, having only lost three league
games. It had been a long time since a Chelsea team and the word consistency
had gone together so well. Sadly, a succession of frustrating draws late in
the season stopped us going all the way.
After the continental flair that Gullit’s ‘sexy football’ approach had
brought to the Bridge, Vialli added structure and regularity, both vital
building blocks in Chelsea’s rise.
https://imgur.com/1nhERSW
He had strengthened our defending with the recruitment of another stand-out
player from Serie A in Marcel Desailly, and Albert Ferrer from Barcelona, an
on-pitch opponent of Vialli’s from an appearance in a European Cup final at
Wembley.
The defence of our own Cup Winners’ Cup crown had ended at the hands of Real
Mallorca in the semi-finals, but more incredible European exploits – and
domestic silverware – was to follow in 1999/00.
It was the season in which we competed in the Champions League for the first
time, thanks to the high Premiership finish Vialli masterminded. We made it
all the way to the quarter-finals, drawing two memorable games with AC Milan,
going to Galatasaray’s ‘Hell’ and winning 5-0, and then beating Barcelona
3-1 in one of the very best nights the Bridge has witnessed.
Despite a heavy defeat in Camp Nou in the second leg, the season would still
finish on a high as Aston Villa were beaten 1-0 in the last FA Cup final at
the old Wembley.
https://imgur.com/2PsMgQC
An impressive victory against Man United in the Charity Shield got 2000/01
off to the perfect start, but relationships between Vialli and some of his
players had worsened, and when results did too, he was sacked in September
2000, as the club changed direction by opting for an experienced manager in
Claudio Ranieri, after a run of young player-managers.
The name Vialli was sung in the stands for weeks afterwards, testament to the
esteem and love in which he was held at Stamford Bridge.
A brief spell as Watford manager followed before he turned his hand to
punditry, charity work, book writing and, in 2019, a role with the Italy
team. Working with his great friend and former Sampdoria strike partner
Roberto Mancini, Vialli played his part as the Azzurri won Euro 2020 at
Wembley, a stadium that meant so much to him during his Chelsea years, in a
city he called home until his death.
Vialli handled the pancreatic cancer that afflicted him on and off for five
years in the same way he dealt with what football threw at him: with courage,
humility, and humour. His 2018 book, ‘Goals: Inspirational Stories to Help
Tackle Life's Challenges’ is a profoundly moving collection of tales
offering insight into the strength of the human spirit, concluding with Vialli
’s own brave battle with this cruel illness.
https://imgur.com/exvBT5X
A regular visitor to the Bridge later in life, making the journey from his
home around the corner, Vialli was met with universal acclaim by supporters
young and old. In May 2018, he managed a Chelsea Legends team against Inter
Milan at the stadium. It is a source of some comfort that in his final public
appearance at Stamford Bridge, Luca was joined by the likes of Zola, Wise and
Roberto Di Matteo, fellow Blues legends he played alongside and later managed
during an iconic period in Chelsea history. That the game was in memory of
Ray Wilkins, Luca’s great friend and assistant at Chelsea, only makes that
occasion more poignant.
A brilliant striker, a trophy-winning manager and a wonderful man, Luca’s
place in the pantheon of Chelsea greats is assured. He will be deeply missed.