Genoa – “Today I remember a brother, a brother who is no longer here, a teammate, a true friend”. Gianluca Pagliuca remembers this way, speaking with the agency AdnkronosGianluca Vialli, his teammate at Sampdoria who won the Scudetto in the now distant 1991, on the day he would have turned 60. “Luca was a real person, with an incredible personality. He and Mancini were the true charismatic leaders of our Sampdoria, but Vialli was our bomber and the decisive man in the locker room: for us he was everything. Even though almost a year and a half has passed since his death, my heart still cries”. Pagliuca remembers in particular “his pranks on the new arrivals, the eggs in the ping pong, the toothpicks stuck in the chairs to pinch those who sat down… Because he was also a prankster, in addition to being an extraordinary player, one of the strongest strikers of his generation”.
The Rai special
To remember the great champion, the Rai Archives are offering the special “Vialli & Co. – The Other Side of Genoa“, a rare service from 1987 dedicated to the team of which Vialli was the symbolic man, Sampdoria coached by Vujadin Boškov between 1986 and 1992. The short reportage from the Ligurian capital, signed by Franco Recanatesi and Salvatore Tramontano (directed by Elio Girlanda) for Gianni Minà’s programme “Domani si gioca”, is a journey into the jewel-team built by President Paolo Mantovani in the 80s of the last century, and at the same time in a city and in that half of the local fan base represented by the Sampdoria supporters. The moment photographed by the two journalists is still distant from the historic championship won in 1991, but the team that is being described is already the “Samp d’oro” capable of facing Maradona’s Napoli without any fear of reverence, having just become champion of Italy. In the space of a few years that team collected three Italian Cups, an Italian Super Cup and a Cup Winners’ Cup, in addition to the aforementioned championship victory in the 1990/1991 season, marking an era.
Gianluca Vialli and his ‘twin’ Roberto Mancini
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The period of maximum splendor in the history of the Blucerchiati is inextricably linked, in the collective memory, to the tandem of the two “goal-winning twins” Vialli and Roberto Mancini, but also to many other great players such as Gianluca Pagliuca, Pietro VierchowodToninho Cerezo, Attilio Lombardo, Moreno Mannini, Luca Pellegrini. Gianluca Vialli remains the most representative figure of the Sampdoria created by Mantovani and Boskov, who saw him reach the highest levels after his beginnings in Cremonese and his consecration in the role of striker in the Under 21 National team led by Azeglio Vicini, with whom he stood out as the best scorer at the 1986 European Championships. Vialli is among the few footballers to have won all the main UEFA club competitions, also thanks to to the brilliant career that followed the Sampdoria season, first at Juventus and then at Chelsea. A complete centre forward, gifted with a captivating charisma, “Stradivial” (nickname coined by Gianni Brera) was an absolute protagonist of Italian and European sport, up until the challenge won as a FIGC manager alongside his close friend Mancini with the Italian national team coached by the latter and became European champion in 2021.
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