Gianluca Vialli Obituary, Death – Gianluca Vialli, the former Italy and Chelsea striker, has died aged 58 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Vialli was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer for the first time in 2017 and then again in 2021, shortly after Italy’s Euro 2020 victory. He was a striker and manager for the Italian national team. Vialli began his club career in his home Italy in 1980 with Cremonese, where he played 105 league games and scored 23 goals. Sampdoria signed him in 1984, and he went on to win three Italian cups, including the Serie A and the European Cup Winners Cup. Vialli joined Juventus for a world record fee of £12.5 million in 1992.
He won the Italian Cup, Serie A, the Italian Supercup, the UEFA Champions League, and the UEFA Cup during this time. Vialli arrived to Chelsea in 1996 and was appointed player manager the following year. He won the FA Cup, League Cup, UEFA Cup Winners Cup, and UEFA Super Cup in England. He is one of nine footballers and the only forward to have won all three major European club competitions; he is also the only player in European football history to have won and finished second in all three major European club competitions, including two UEFA Cup Winners’ Cups.
Vialli played in two FIFA World Cups for Italy, the first in 1986 and the second in 1990. He also played for his country in UEFA Euro 1988, when he helped them reach the semi-finals and was named to the tournament team. He scored 259 club goals, 16 national team goals, and 11 goals with the Italy national under-21 football team throughout his twenty-year professional football career, for a total of 286 goals in over 500 matches, ranking him sixth all-time in Italy. After retiring from sports, he worked in management, punditry, and as a Sky Italia expert.
He was a part of the Italy national team’s non-playing staff as a delegation head, but he stepped down owing to his ongoing cancer battle. Vialli was raised with his four siblings as the son of a self-made millionaire at the 60-room Castello di Belgioioso in Cremona. On August 26, 2003, Vialli married Cathryn White-Cooper, and they had two children, Olivia and Sofia. He liked golf and took part in the Dunhill Links Championship pro-am. After leaving Chelsea F.C., Vialli spent the next 20 years in SW6 in London.