Salvatore “Totó” Schillaci, top scorer at the Italia 90 World Cup, died at the age of 59 due to colon cancer. In an interview with the Italian bishops’ newspaper Avvenire, the former soccer player stated: “God connects all the dots to create our design.”
According to reports ANSAthe scorer known in Italy as the protagonist of “the magical nights” of the World Cup that was played in the European country, had been hospitalized since September 7 in the pulmonology area of the Palermo Civic Hospital, where he finally died on September 18. .
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The Italian Football Federation points out in its website that, to honor the memory of Totó Schillaci, a minute of silence will be observed before the matches of all championships, scheduled from today until the weekend.
Totó Schillaci’s interview with the Italian bishops’ newspaper
“To reach only third place undefeated, with only one goal conceded to Zenga (Italy’s goalkeeper) until the semi-final, and to be eliminated on penalties by Argentina, after blocking Maradona… These are things in which even after a long time time you think and yes, they hurt you a little, but that’s how it was, it’s part of the game,” Schillaci recalled in the dialogue with Massimiliano Castellani of Future.
In Italia 90, Maradona’s Argentina eliminated Italy on penalties, with a great performance by goalkeeper Sergio Goycoechea, but then lost the final to Germany 1-0, with a penalty. In the entire tournament, Schillaci scored six goals, thus being the top scorer in the competition.
The popular symbol of the magical nights of Italia ’90 was missing,
A provincial boy, Schillaci, after years spent in the lower leagues in Messina, landed in big football, becoming a leader of the national team in the Italian World Cup in 1990.
We remember that look of him… pic.twitter.com/RLWreD5eth
— Elisabetta B. (@babetta123) September 18, 2024
“I have been very lucky in my career. I started playing on the asphalt of the street in my neighborhood in Palermo, surrounded by people who have known hunger and prison. I did it by continually overcoming all the challenges that arose and taking advantage of the opportunity that was given to me at the right time,” Schillaci told Avvenire.
After remembering that he had 300 children in his football school in Palermo, Castellani points out in his note in Avvenire that Totó Schillaci’s faith “was directed to God. Even in the painful days of his illness he never stopped praying.”
Schillaci highlighted in this regard that “God connects all the points to create our design and I have always found myself at the right points.”
“By combining them, one after another, the splendid plan that I am living emerged: other magical days and nights, and I consider it a divine gift.”
Walter Sanchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.