Italian Legend Gianluca Vialli Closes Age, Struggle Against Cancer Ends

The late Italian football legend, Gianluca Vialli. (Photo: Twitter/@SeerieA_EN)

JAKARTA - Italian football legend Gianluca Vialli died at the age of 58. He breathed his last battling pancreatic cancer.

Vialli was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2017. She was diagnosed with the same disease in 2021 after being declared cured in April 2020.

During his time as a player, Vialli was listed as a very sharp striker in front of the opponent's goal. He once strengthened Cremonese, Sampdoria, Juventus, and Chelsea.

Throughout his career, Vialli won two Italian League titles, four Coppa Italia, two Italian Super Cups, Champions League, Europa League, FA Cup, and English League Cup.

Vialli played 59 times for Italy and won the Champions League with Juventus before joining Chelsea in 1996 and becoming player-manager in 1998.

He joined Juventus in 1992 for a 12-million world record after winning the Serie A title and European Cup Winners for eight seasons with Sampdoria.

Vialli was the first Italian to coach the English Premier League team. He took over from Ruud Gullit at Chelsea and successfully led the team to win in the League Cup, UEFA Cup winners, and UEFA Super Cup.

In addition, he also led Chelsea to victory in the 2000 FA Cup finals and Charity Shield. However, he was sacked at the start of the following season after a bad start.

Vialli also played briefly at Watford, then in the second caste, during the 2001/2002 season. Unfortunately, he was kicked out after Hornets only finished 14th.

Vialli briefly joined Roberto Mancini's Italian national team in November 2019 as the coordinator of the squad. He held the position until December 2022 before taking leave on health reasons.