Salvatore ‘Toto’ Schillaci, the surprise hero of Italia ’90, when his six goals helped the hosts to third place, has passed away. He was 59. He had been diagnosed with colon cancer in 2022. Schillaci played for Messina in his native Sicily, and enjoyed spells at Juventus and Internazionale before finishing his career in Japan as one of the stars of the new J-League
A 25-goal season with Messina in Serie B in 1988-89 opened the door for a move to Juventus, then rebuilding after the glory years of the early and mid-1980s. He hit the ground running at Juve, scoring 21 times in his debut season, including 15 from 30 Serie A matches. That form saw him picked in Azeglio Vicini’s Italy squad, and though he started on the bench, it was he that scored the decisive goal in an unconvincing win against Austria. With the much more celebrated Gianluca Vialli not at his best, Schillaci scored again as a substitute against the Czechs.
Further goals followed in the round of 16 against Uruguay and the quarterfinal against Ireland, before he put Italy in front in a titance semi-final tussle against Diego Maradona’s Argentina. The Albiceleste would prevail on penalties, and Schillaci would have to settle for the admittedly small consolation of Golden Boot, for leading scorer, and Golden Ball as Player of the Tournament.
But in two further seasons with Juve and two more with Inter, who signed him in the summer of 1992, he never crossed 10 goals. The scoring touch came back only with the move to Japan and Jubilo Iwata, where he scored 65 times in 93 matches. After Italia ’90, he would score only once more for the Azzurri, as their campaign to qualify for Euro 1992 ran aground in Norway.
In his retirement, he tried to give back to his roots, by running an academy in Palermo where he was born and raised.
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