Gianluca Vialli lost his battle with pancreatic cancer and left us on Friday at the age of 58. Italy coach Roberto Mancini, forced to talk about his lifelong friend in the past, told Gazzetta dello Sport how his last meeting with Vialli went.

Roberto Mancini and the last hug with Gianluca Vialli

On December 29, 2022, Mancini flew to London for his last conversation with Vialli, who had been his close friend for over 40 years.

The embrace that both Mancini and Vialli felt would be their last.

The coach of the Italian national team talks about the fighting spirit that Gianluca showed until the end. A real “lion” to the end.

“He was helpless, without strength, with a weak voice, but very conscious. It was a lion all the way.

We talked a little bit about everything. He even asked how the December training with the youth went.

Indeed, he asked me a lot, he wanted to know everything, to know how our project is progressing (he means the Italian national team)” – Roberto Mancinifor Gazzetta dello Sport.

The former Cremonese, Sampdoria, Juventus and Chelsea striker has been suffering from pancreatic cancer and announced in December that he was stepping down from his post at the Italian national team to focus on treatment, Gazzetta dello Sport reports.

After Sinisha Mykhailovych and Pele, another great champion, Gianluca Vialli, left the arena forever.

The impressive career of Gianluca Vialli

Gianluca Vialli was born on July 9, 1964 in Cremona and played for Cremonese (1980-1984), Sampdoria (1984-1992), Juventus (1992-1996) and Chelsea (1996-1999).

During his 19-year career as a football player, Vialli played 673 matches in Serie A, the Premier League and European Cups, scoring 259 goals.

With the Italian national team, he has a bronze medal at the 1990 World Cup, as well as silver and bronze at the European U19 Championships in 1984 and 1986, making a total of 59 appearances for the senior team and scoring 16 goals. He retired on July 1, 1999.

As a technician, he made his debut on the Chelsea bench, for six months as player-coach and team-mate with Dan Petrescu, between 1998 and 2000. He left Watford in the 2001-2002 season to join the Italian FA as head of the 2019 delegation, working with his friend and Sampdoria strike partner Roberto Mancini.

His record is impressive: two Italian titles (Sampdoria and Juventus), Champions League (Juventus 1996), two Cup Winners’ Cups (Sampdoria 1990 and Chelsea 1998), FA Cup (Chelsea 1997), four Coppa Italia (three). with Sampdoria and one with Juventus), one League Cup and two Italian Super Cups.

As the manager of Chelsea in London, he managed to lift the FA Cup trophy in 2000.