Gianluca Vialli was among the final generation of footballers who could straddle the line between superstardom and living a normal life.
When the Italian goalscorer, who passed away this morning aged 58 after first being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2017, arrived at Chelsea in 1996 the Premier League was beginning to become an international brand.
The amount of talent coming from abroad was increasing every season and Vialli’s arrival at a mediocre Chelsea was a signpost towards what English football’s top tier would become.
At 32 he was approaching the winter of a decorated career and to bring a man who had just captained Juventus to the Champions League was a stunning coup for chairman Ken Bates.
Vialli was, as the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust put it in a statement this morning, “a foundational pillar of restoring the club’s identity.”
He was adored by legions of supporters and a source of fascination beyond Chelsea because in the mid-90s an elite goalscorer from the continent was an exotic proposition.
It may seem odd now but there are newspaper clippings from the era which read of wonderment at his fashion. Here was a man who could pull off what seemed the impossible: looking suave while wearing a V-neck sweater.
But there was still a degree of privacy off the pitch, an ability for these new and, let’s face it, thrillingly cosmopolitan figures to roam the streets of their local neighbourhoods rather than hide behind entourages and SUVs with blackout windows.
Vialli quickly fell in love with the area, settling initially in Eaton Square, and West London would remain his home to the end. Famously he visited the San Lorenzo restaurant in Knightsbridge so frequently, the chef ended up naming a dish after him.
It helped that he also fell in love with Cathryn White Cooper, whom he married in 2003. The couple have two teenage daughters, Olivia and Sofia. Cathryn, an interior designer, would regularly be seen with Vialli at events.
But the close-knit family were successfully able to keep away from the limelight. In an interview with The Times in 2020, having been told by doctors that the treatment was successful and he was cancer free, Vialli spoke of the need to find humour with wife and children during intensive treatment.
Not least when he lost his eyebrows during nine months of chemotherapy in 2019. He tried to draw them back on initially but, in the touching interview, said: “Then my daughters helped, and I got my wife advising which [make-up] looks better. We laughed. You have to laugh. You need to find the funny side if you can.”
Vialli went on to write a book about his experience - Goals: Inspirational Stories to Help Tackle Life’s Challenges - took up meditation and became deeply reflective after first recovering from such a brutal disease.
He was on the Italy bench during their European Championship win in the summer of 2021. A close friend of head coach Roberto Mancini, Vialli was given a prominent role on the backroom staff and was memorably among the first to race on to the Wembley pitch when they defeated England on penalties in the final.
But in late 2021 he learned that the cancer had returned, vowing to “use all my psycho-physical energies to help my body overcome this phase of the disease” as he confirmed that he would stepping away from the Italy setup.
Among all the tributes since Vialli’s passing was announced on Friday morning, Sampdoria, the club where he made his name and spearheaded their Serie A title win in 1990-91, offered the most poetic of all. “You gave us so much, we gave you so much: yes, it was love, reciprocal, infinite," they said. "A love that will not die today with you.”
