Former Chelsea player and manager Gianluca Vialli has died at the age of 58 following a five-year battle with pancreatic cancer. The Italian football legend scored 40 goals in 88 appearances for the Blues between 1996 and 1999 before going on to manage the west London club, winning three major trophies.
The former Sampdoria and Juventus forward won a total of 59 caps for his nation. After he was initially given the all-clear from his cancer back in 2020, he became a part of former teammate Roberto Mancini's coaching staff with the Italian national team, winning the European Championships in England the following summer.
Vialli stepped down from his role in December when he returned to the Royal Marsden hospital to undergo further treatment. The tributes have been pouring in for a legend of the game, with two of his former sides posting heartfelt messages in his memory.
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A message on Chelsea's official Twitter account read: "You’ll be missed by so many. A legend to us and to all of football. Rest in peace, Gianluca Vialli."
Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly and co-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."
This was followed with a touching tribute on Chelsea's official website, which detailed Vialli's career and impact at Stamford Bridge. The article read: "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."
Sampdoria have paid tribute with their own heartfelt message to the Italian icon, which read: "There are already those who imagine you between Paolo and Vuja, happy to embrace you again but just as amazed to see you again so soon.
"Yes, soon Luca. Too soon. They say you're never ready to say goodbye to a fellow traveler and, sadly, that's true. Your travel companion – as you had decided to call him – made you get off the train at 58, infamously snatching your ticket to new horizons and goals. A ticket to life which, after all, was worth a bit for all Sampdoria fans.
"We've come a long way together, growing up and searching, winning and dreaming. You've arrived little boy, we salute you man. We will remember you as a boy and a relentless centre-forward, because heroes are all young and beautiful and you, since that summer of 1984, have been our hero. Strong and beautiful, with that 9 printed on the back and the Italian flag sewn on the heart. Strongest leader of Sampdoria, paired up front with your twin Bobby Gol . In three words: one of us.
"A perception that remained so after having bid farewell to Genoa and the South in tears. That's right: while raising trophies around Europe with different colours, tracksuits and clothes, Gianluca Vialli was a Sampdorian and the Sampdorians were with Gianluca Vialli. With you, in victory and in defeat, in health and in sickness. In Bern as in Göteborg, in Marassi on 19 May 1991 as in Wembley a year and a day later. Or like again at Wembley but in July 2021: we were all there in that hug at Mancio , in that weeping we will never forget.
"We won't forget your 141 goals , your overhead kicks, your cashmere shirts, your earring, your platinum blonde hair, your Ultras bomber jacket. You gave us so much, we gave you so much: yes, it was love, reciprocal, infinite. A love that will not die today with you. We will continue to love and adore you because – as you well know – you are better than Pele. And because, despite everything, our beautiful season is destined to never end. It will continue to shine in that sky circled in blue on which you, Luca, have signed forever. "For who?". "For us!".
"Company sends its deepest condolences to his wife Cathryn, daughters Olivia and Sofia and the entire Vialli family."
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