Genoa – Gianluca Vialli had been married since 2003 to Cathryn White Cooper, a beautiful and equally strong woman who has been by his side in an exemplary way in these long years of illness. Cathryn White Cooper is originally from South Africa. We don’t have much news about her date of birth, but we do know that, when she was very young, she was a very popular model. Later, after leaving the catwalks, she dedicated herself to the world of furniture and is well known and respected in the UK. And it was just when she decided to settle in the UK to work as an interior designer that the magic happened for her. In England, Cathryn White Cooper not only managed to establish herself in her profession, managing to follow some important interior design projects, but she also met her future husband. The couple met when the player played for Chelsea. They lived in London with their two daughters, Olivia and Sofia. The wedding venue had been Ashbly Castlein Northampton, a fairytale location.
Gianluca was madly in love with that blonde who immediately made him dizzy and who she had resisted his incessant courtship for four months. But in the end she said yes and made him a father twice: with Sofia and Olivia. The whole family has always kept away from gossip, so much so that Vialli and Cathryn’s two daughters don’t even have social media accounts in their own names. However, Cathryn White Cooper’s extreme confidentiality did not prevent her from often appearing alongside Vialli during official events and occasions. The very close-knit couple has also remained united since, in 2017, Vialli discovered he had pancreatic cancer. An evil which, unfortunately, a month ago now, forced him to abandon all the sporting assignments currently active. All to be able to devote himself to care, surrounded by the affection of his wife and daughters. Even the two girls, as well as their mother, have given all their affection to their father these days, as he himself declared during a moving interview with The Times.
Vialli, the tribute of Chelsea fans at Stamford Bridge in London: “He was different”
Since he landed at Chelsea in the summer of 1996 Vialli never thought of returning to Italy. In Grumello Cremonese there is his family that he often visits, but London is the city where he has taken root. The house in the Chelsea district, in one of the crossroads of Fulham Road, became his headquarters, then the marriage, the birth of the girls who went to school across the Channel.
Theirs is a family that lives far from the spotlight, unlike many former footballers who, despite the passing of the years, find a way to get people talking about them, not always in a positive way. Gianluca and Cathryn, on the other hand, have always been discreet and she doesn’t even have social profiles, neither on Twitter nor on Instagram. It’s the opposite of modern Wags, ready for anything to get noticed. Her date of birth is not even known, but it is known that she has a twin sister. Cathryn’s parents still live in South Africa which in the past was a Christmas holiday destination for the Vialli family. The last time was a year ago.
Lady Vialli has never granted interviews and has been seen in public a few times, always next to her husband. One of the last was on the occasion of the “Facchetti” award received by Gianluca in February 2019. That time he did not hold back his tears hearing him say that “the battle for the disease continues and I will not give up”.
Daughters Olivia and Sofia
Vialli himself had spoken of the daughters, in his usual sober style, recalling the first chemotherapy and the way in which Olivia and Sofia had experienced their father’s illness, supporting him: «They helped me by drawing my eyebrows» Vialli had said in 2020 to The Times, adding: «I also asked my wife what tricks to use. We laughed, you have to laugh, you need to find the funny side, but there were also days where I locked myself in the bathroom to cry».
Luca Vialli, the last interview with Cattelan: “I feel I have less and less time to be a good father”
Precisely for his daughters and his wife, the former champion (on and off the football fields) had found new and additional strength to fight, like “a lion”, as his closest friends, such as Roberto Mancini, have always said. Interviewed by Alessandro Cattelan in his docu-series on Netflix A Simple Question, Gianluca Vialli had defined cancer as “a phase of life, a travel companion”, but above all he had not done without talking about his family: «Today I know that I have a duty to behave in a certain way towards people, towards my wife and my daughters, because I don’t know how long I will live. So you have this opportunity to write the letters and sort things out.” Also far from social media, now it is they – wife and daughters, together with their 87-year-old mother – who perhaps feel the duty to continue to behave in the “kind” way that Gianluca Vialli taught them, experiencing pain in a private way and treasuring his example.
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