The Portrait

Farewell to Totò Schillaci, the legend of the magical nights of Italia '90

Totò Schillaci, idol of Italia 90, has died at the age of 59. The former footballer had been hospitalised in serious condition on 7 September in the pneumology department of the Civico hospital in Palermo. The funeral chamber will be set up in Palermo's Renzo Barbera stadium.

18 September 2024

4' min read

Although he had long since stepped out of the spotlight of popularity, one only has to say his name - Totò Schillaci - to return in an instant to that summer of 34 years ago, the summer of the 'magic nights' of Italia '90, the summer immortalised by Gianna Nannini and Edoardo Bennato's song.
A light, carefree summer, like that song, at least in my memory. Of course it wasn't: the Gulf War would start on 2 August, but that was the feeling. That there was a good future ahead, with Italian fashion imposing itself on the world and our chronic troubles left under the carpet for a while before the 'Mani Pulite' season.

Totò Schillaci, from Palermo's San Giovanni Apostolo, a poor neighbourhood in an extreme suburb, was - along with Roberto Baggio - the most representative symbol of that summer and of that World Cup played in Italy. On 1 December next, he would have been 60 years old. With the Azzurri shirt, he who had never played in the national team, scored goals in bunches in that World Cup. It seemed as if the ball was magnetized by his famous spirited eyes. Not beautiful goals, but very effective. Where there was a defensive crack, Totò would pop up and put it in, dragging coach Azeglio Vicini's Italy towards the dream of winning the tournament.

That Sicilian boy, who after every goal ran like crazy to embrace everyone, drove the whole of Italy crazy, infecting even those who understood nothing about football, but wanted to party, to participate in that merry-go-round of madness similar to that of Spain '82.
It wasn't just Totò, mind you. There were champions like Baggio, Baresi, Vialli, Maldini, Ancelotti, Zenga. One of the strongest national teams in our history. But that Totò, who the year before from Messina had passed for 6 billion lire to Juventus, was the spearhead. Not as technically refined as Baggio, but charged with an invincible inner fire that came from his roots: father a bricklayer, three brothers and a sister, and many jobs - hawker and confectioner's boy - to help the family.

Toto' Schillaci esulta per il gol durante la semifinale dei Mondiali Italia-Argentina, in una immagine di archivio. ANSA

'I made it because I had the recklessness to bet everything on football,' Schillaci recounted. "After a year and a half fixing tyres and then going to train, I chose football by giving myself a deadline. If I hadn't broken through, I would have gone back to the shop'.
Despite his drive, and the euphoria of the magical nights, Italy's dream was shattered in the semi-final by Diego Maradona's Argentina who beat the Azzurri on penalties in the semi-final in Naples. A strange match, a bit bewitched, with the Neapolitan fans more committed to supporting Maradona than Italy.

Totò asked Vicini not to shoot from the penalty spot, but later regretted it. 'Afterwards I spent two hours inside the locker room smoking, I cried for a dream that slipped through my hands,' the striker confessed. A dream half realised because Schillaci still became top scorer of the World Cup with six goals, also winning the Golden Shoe. Also in 1990 Totò came second in the prestigious Golden Ball classification behind the German Lothar Matthaus, a pillar of Trapattoni's Inter team.

Addio a Totò Schillaci, il bomber delle notti magiche di Italia ’90
Photogallery15 foto

The waning phase of the career

This was the peak of Totò's career. After the World Cup, Schillaci played two more seasons with Juventus, however, going through a heavy involution that dried up his scoring streak, which in his first year in bianconero had allowed him to score 15 goals in 30 games. A tarnish that also coincided with some of his character 'exuberances' that were not exactly praiseworthy.
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'I'll have you shot' shouted Totò in the face of the red-blue Fabio Poli, who had provoked him by spitting in his face throughout the match. Guasconades from a suburban boy that, however, ended up making him the target of the opposing fans. "I know I was wrong, but they slaughtered me like I was a killer," Schillaci would later say.

'He was as good as gold, but sometimes he couldn't control himself,' says Roberto Baggio, who once took a punch from Totò for teasing him in the locker room. The two later made peace and became close friends. But not everyone was willing to overlook such a sanguine character. A character that also caused him problems in his private life. Separated from his first wife, Rita Bonaccorso, who later had an affair with striker Gianluigi Lentini, Schillaci later remarried Barbara Lombardo, who followed him in his years back in Palermo and in some television programmes such as 'Beijing Express 2023', where Totò talked about his health problems.

"In 2022 I was found to have colon cancer. I have been operated on twice, but I want to prove that, with the help of doctors, this evil can be overcome,' he said surprisingly. That TV appearance was a kind of antidote to the depression that the illness had accentuated. By a curious coincidence, on the morning of 16 January, when Schillaci was at the La Maddalena clinic in Palermo, Cosa Nostra fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro was arrested. 'I was there to do some tests when I saw hooded policemen enter,' the former Palermo champion told the microphones in dismay.

He has been through a lot, Schillaci. His footballing career was also mixed, but quickly declined after his Juventus adventure. With Inter, with whom he played two seasons scoring 11 goals in 30 games, things did not go well despite the excellent relationship with president Ernesto Pellegrini. He was to blame for physical problems, but also for something that had cracked, as if the old spark had been extinguished. In a brave decision for those times, in 1993 he moved for two years to play in Japan, at Jubilo Iwata, where Totò Schillaci was still famous as the goal scorer of Italia '90.

It was a largely positive experience that eventually concurred with his departure from football. His old passion drove him to open a youth sports centre in Palermo and to be the technical director of an amateur team. He liked seeing young people play, being able to give everyone a chance, even the most marginalised, perhaps less determined than him. 'For me, football changed my life, I hope it can for them too,' Schillaci said. But then the illness returned, a relentless scorer even for a bomber as elusive as Totò.