His six goals, raw passion and wide eyes will always be as integral to Italia 90 as Gazza’s tears and Nessun Dorma’s soulful sounds.
Salvatore Schillaci came roaring out of the shadows, a relatively unknown player who energised the host nation with a heady combination of intensity, aggression and instinctive finishing that would have made him a surefire hit in the modern game.
‘Toto’, as he was known, had been at Juventus for one season following a £3.5m move from Messina in Serie B, and did not earn his first cap until March, just over two months before the World Cup.
He was 25 years old and a striker for one of the biggest clubs in the world, but others were expected to lead the Azzurri charge.
Gianluca Vialli and Roberto Mancini were established at Sampdoria, Andrea Carnevale had just helped Napoli win the Serie A title and the emerging talent was Roberto Baggio, on the verge of leaving Fiorentina for Juventus.
Salvatore ‘Toto’ Schillaci passed away at the age of 59 after a battle with colon cancer
The striker scored six goals during his country’s World Cup, where he emerged as a star.
However, Schillaci stole the show. Like a force of nature, he came off the bench for Carnevale and headed in the only goal in Italy’s opening goal against Austria.
He was a substitute in the second game, coming on in the second half of a 1-0 win over the United States, but coach Azeglio Vicini bowed to the public outcry and paired him up front with Baggio in the third against Czechoslovakia.
Schillaci scored in the ninth minute, the first in a 2-0 win. And in the knockout stages, the goals kept coming. He scored a left-footed strike from 20 yards for the first in a 2-0 win against Uruguay in the round of 16 and the only goal against the Republic of Ireland in the round of 16.
Italy placed their faith in him and when the semi-final against Diego Maradona’s Argentina in Naples came around, his name was the first name in Vicini’s line-up.
Baggio was left off, replaced by Vialli, and Schillaci gave them the lead when he converted a rebound before the Argentines fought back to equalise and then win on penalties.
Schillaci did not take a penalty in the shoot-out, citing injury, although he was fit to start and score his sixth goal of the tournament from the spot to beat England 2-1 in the third-place play-off.
He won the Golden Boot and secured his place in history. He also won the Ballon d’Or as the tournament’s best player, but found it difficult to come to terms with his new status.
Having left school at 16 to work as a tyre fitter, he went from obscurity at Messina in Serie B to Azzurri icon in just over 12 months.
Schillaci made over 130 appearances for Juventus and also had a spell with Inter Milan.
Schillaci arrived at the 1990 World Cup with just one cap, but he finished it as a hero.
He won the Golden Boot at the 1990 World Cup and was named Player of the Tournament.
Schillaci finished runner-up to Lothar Matthaus in the Ballon d’Or and came under the spotlight when he was reunited with Baggio at Juventus, but his goals failed to flow as easily. Injury problems took their toll and his two years at Inter Milan proved disappointing.
“I never expected what happened,” Schillaci told Mail Sport’s Tom Collomosse in 2020. “If someone had predicted it to me, I would have laughed. At a certain point, you stop for a minute and ask yourself: ‘Is everything that has happened really true? ’ And all this pressure that you have on you becomes heavy, unmanageable. I wasn’t used to dealing with that.”
He only scored one more goal for Italy and finished his international career with seven goals in 16 games, his last appearance coming in 1991. As the Azzurri prepared for the 1994 World Cup, Schillaci headed to Japan, where he spent three successful years with Jubilo Iwata and won the J-League.
After his retirement, he returned to Sicily, where he became an adviser and opened football schools. He served as an ambassador and press officer for Juventus, appeared on Italian reality TV and even played the role of a mafia boss in a television series.
Schillaci died on Wednesday at age 59. He had been diagnosed with colon cancer in 2022.
As the tributes poured in, those old enough to remember that glorious summer of football were transported back in time to a time when they fell in love with Paul Gascoigne, Luciano Pavarotti and Toto Schillaci.
