CELTIC and Rangers are not the only Scottish sides facing big European names this midweek. Fiorentina arrive in Edinburgh for Thursday’s Europa Conference League tie with Hearts.
It is a fixture that will bring to mind a player who shone in the colours of both sides – the silky-haired midfielder Stefano Salvatori. The Italian died in October 2017 from cancer at the desperately young age of 49. Salvatori is remembered by Hearts as a key figure in the Scottish Cup-winning team which beat Rangers to the trophy in 1998.
A fierce battler on the pitch, he was a quiet, gentle soul off it. In Anthony Brown’s book Reminiscing With Legends which chronicles that 1998 triumph, we learn more about Salvatori’s character during his time at Tynecastle – information which brings both a smile to one’s face and which also might leave you reaching for a handkerchief.
