Gianluca Vialli

Gianluca Vialli (Italian pronunciation: [dʒanˈluːka ˈvjalli]; 9 July 1964 – 5 January 2023) was an Italian football player and manager who played as a striker. Vialli started his club career at his hometown club Cremonese in 1980, where he made 105 league appearances and scored 23 goals. His performances impressed Sampdoria, who signed him in 1984 and with whom he scored 85 league goals, won three Italian cups, Serie A and the European Cup Winners Cup.

In 1992, Vialli transferred to Juventus for a world record £12.5 million. During his time at the Turin club, he won the Italian Cup, Serie A, Italian Supercup, UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Cup. In 1996, Vialli joined Chelsea and became their player-manager the following season. In England, he won the FA Cup, League Cup, UEFA Cup Winners Cup and UEFA Super Cup. He is one of nine footballers to have won the three main European club competitions and the only forward to have done so; he is also the only player in European footballing history to hold both winners and runners-up medals in all three mainstream UEFA club competitions, including two winners medals for the now-defunct UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

At international level, Vialli represented the Italy national team in two FIFA World Cups, in 1986 and (on home soil) in 1990. He also took part at UEFA Euro 1988, helping his nation to a semi-final finish, and was elected to the team of the tournament. During his twenty-year-long career as a professional footballer, he scored 259 goals at club level, 16 goals with the national team, and 11 goals with the Italy national under-21 football team, for a total of 286 goals in more than 500 appearances, making him the tenth-highest scoring Italian player in all competitions.

On his retirement from playing, Vialli went into management and later punditry, and worked as a commentator for Sky Italia. He was part of the Italy national team non-playing staff as a coordinator when they won UEFA Euro 2020; he stepped back from this role days before his death from cancer.

Club career

Cremonese

Vialli's senior career started in 1980 when he signed for local club Cremonese in Serie C1, winning promotion to Serie B. After scoring ten goals for the club as a winger in the 1983–84 Serie B season, he was transferred to Sampdoria.

Sampdoria

Vialli played for Sampdoria between 1984 and 1992, during which time the club had their most successful period in their history. At Sampdoria, he formed a prolific strike partnership with teammate and friend Roberto Mancini, earning the nickname 'The Goal Twins' (in Italian I Gemelli del Gol). Vialli also had a very good relationship with club president Paolo Mantovani and coach Vujadin Boškov, who were both described by Vialli as being father figures. Sampdoria won their first ever Italian Cup in 1985 with Vialli scoring in the final, and would win it again in 1988 and 1989, when Vialli would score a record 13 goals in the tournament. This led to two notable European Cup Winners' Cup runs, where Sampdoria lost the 1989 final before winning the trophy in 1990, with Vialli scoring both goals in the final victory over Anderlecht, and finishing the tournament as top-scorer.

Despite losing out to Milan in the 1990 European Super Cup, the club went on to win their first ever Serie A championship in the 1990–91 season, in which Vialli was league top scorer with 19 goals – celebrating many of his goals with a backflip, including one against Inter Milan. The following season, Sampdoria won the Supercoppa Italiana and reached the European Cup final, but Vialli would miss a number of chances as Johan Cruyff's Barcelona "Dream Team" won 1–0. This would be his last game with Sampdoria.

Juventus

Vialli moved to Juventus shortly after the 1992 European Cup final loss for a world record fee of £12.5 million. His first Juventus contract was negotiated for him by Sampdoria president Mantovani, as Vialli did not have an agent. Although he struggled with injury, Vialli won the UEFA Cup in his first season with Juventus playing alongside players such as Roberto Baggio, Pierluigi Casiraghi, Paolo Di Canio and Andreas Möller, among other players, under manager Giovanni Trapattoni. During the 1993 UEFA Cup Final against Borussia Dortmund, Vialli set-up Baggio's decisive first goal in the first leg.

Following the arrival of manager Marcello Lippi, Vialli underwent an intense fitness and muscle strengthening training regime to lose weight, and gain speed, agility, physical strength, and stamina. Vialli refound his goalscoring form throughout the season, and through his leadership and decisive performances, he helped Juventus win the Scudetto (his second overall) and the Italian Cup in 1995, scoring 17 league goals during the season; the club also narrowly missed out on a treble after suffering a defeat in the 1995 UEFA Cup Final to Parma, despite Vialli scoring a spectacular second leg goal.

In January 1996, with his contract expiring in summer, Vialli decided to leave Juventus at the end of the season. He would finish his final season with Juventus by captaining the side to a Supercoppa Italiana victory (with Vialli scoring the only goal of the match) and a Champions League final win over defending champions AFC Ajax, playing alongside Del Piero and Fabrizio Ravanelli. Vialli's only two goals in the latter competition came in the semi-finals against Nantes; he scored the opening goal in a 2–0 home victory in the first-leg, and then scored again during the second leg, in addition to assisting Paulo Sousa's decisive goal, which allowed Juventus to advance to the final 4–3 on aggregate. During his four seasons with the club he totalled 102 appearances, scoring 38 goals.

Chelsea

Vialli joined Chelsea in the summer of 1996 on a free transfer as part of manager Ruud Gullit's rebuilding of the side, despite having been strongly linked with Scottish champions Rangers. Vialli adapted quickly to life in London due to his grasp of the English language and use of English idioms. The team won the FA Cup in Vialli's first season, with the Italian scoring two goals in a 4–2 comeback over Liverpool in the fourth round. However, a feud with Gullit saw him regularly left out of the starting line-up; in the final itself he was limited to a five-minute appearance as a late substitute.

During the 1997–98 season, Vialli scored four goals in a league win over Barnsley and a hat-trick against Norwegian side Tromsø in the Cup Winners' Cup, but still could not cement his place in the side under Gullit. However, following Gullit's dismissal in early 1998, Vialli assumed the role of a player-manager, winning the Cup Winners' Cup in 1998, and the League Cup. Although he left himself out of the squad for the League Cup final, Vialli finished the season as Chelsea's top scorer. He then began his first full season as player-manager with a 1–0 victory over Champions League winners Real Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup.

Vialli retired from professional football at the end of the 1998–99 season to focus on his position as Chelsea's manager. He made his last professional appearance in Chelsea's final match of the 1998–99 Premier League, scoring the winning goal against Derby County at Stamford Bridge and finishing his Chelsea career with 83 appearances and 40 goals.

Managerial career

Chelsea

Gullit was sacked as Chelsea manager in February 1998 and 33-year-old Vialli was appointed player-manager, becoming the first Italian to manage in the Premier League. Chelsea were already in the semi-finals of the League Cup and the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup, and went on to win both competitions under Vialli, as well as finishing fourth in the Premier League. In beating VfB Stuttgart at the Cup Winners' Cup final on 13 May 1998, at 33 years and 308 days old, Vialli became the youngest manager ever to win a UEFA competition. The record stood for thirteen years until 18 May 2011 when FC Porto's André Villas-Boas won the Europa League at the age of 33 years and 213 days.

The following season Chelsea won the UEFA Super Cup by beating Real Madrid 1–0, and finished third in the Premier League, just four points behind champions Manchester United in what was Chelsea's highest league finish since 1970, when they also finished third. After this, Vialli retired from playing.

The following season saw Chelsea make their debut in the UEFA Champions League, where they reached the quarter-finals. After a 3–1 first leg victory over Barcelona, they were eventually knocked out 4–6 on aggregate following a 5–1 return leg loss at Camp Nou after extra time. Despite a fifth-place finish in the Premier League, the campaign ended on a high note when Vialli guided Chelsea to a win over Aston Villa in the 2000 FA Cup final.

The 2000–01 season started brightly, with Chelsea beating Manchester United to win the Charity Shield, Vialli's fifth official trophy with the club in less than three years. Vialli was sacked five games into the season after an indifferent start and having fallen out with several players, including Gianfranco Zola, Didier Deschamps and Dan Petrescu.