Ciao Totò Schillaci, the wide-eyed dreamer who stole Italian hearts | Football

Nervous, white as a sheet and with the eyes of a nation fixed on him, he could probably have heard the simultaneous heartbeats of those in the Stadio Olimpico in his head. Salvatore Schillaci was about to announce himself not only to the Italian consciousness, but to history. He didn’t know it then, at that moment he looked like a man fueled by fear and imposter syndrome. In a few moments he would ride away in celebration with those wide-open Sicilian eyes. He didn’t believe it, but neither did Italy. Everything that had come before had vanished, in a few moments he had gone from unknown to saint.

The outburst of emotion around the world on Thursday says a lot about “Totò”. “The man who made the nation dream” were the words of the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni. It was true. The hosts had invested so much hope in Italia 90 and the wave of emotion that carried them through this campaign was surfed by Schillaci. Every time his shots hit the net, all six of them, it felt like the relief and exaltation of Italy was coming out through Salvatore’s eyes and expressions. That he died at the age of 59 from colon cancer, like so many others, is too young. What he leaves behind, however, is an embodiment of how football and life should be enjoyed.

Totò, as he would later become known, would go on to become top scorer at the Italian 90 tournament – ​​not bad considering his second game for the Azure Blue was against Austria in the first match of the World Cup on home soil. Schillaci himself admitted that he was just happy to be in the 22-man squad and didn’t expect to play. The coach, Azeglio Vicini, had told him in training that he had talent and that maybe, just maybe, he would get a few minutes. Whatever the reason, his first competitive match would come in the Italian tournament opener and his story would begin. Soon, Gianluca Vialli would give him the ball and the rest would be history.

Schillachi’s story was, and remains, beautiful for so many reasons. Outside Italy, nobody knew who he was; even at home, he was seen as a last-minute gamble. It was an era before 15-year-old boys knew who was in the Palermo C team thanks to Football Manager. We watched World Cups to spot players like Totò, Roger Milla, Carlos Valderrama, Marius Lacatus and Dragan Stojkovic. Schillaci embodied that and, in a nation so used to a glut of stars, he gave Italy a moment like this when all eyes were on Roberto Mancini, Vialli, Roberto Donadoni and many more. Now they had something unexpected: a hero from the south.

It was a long way from Totò’s humble beginnings in Palermo. His father had always lived in the same apartment in Sicily. It was probably as you might imagine: high-rise, small, white and overlooking a dusty red children’s football pitch with the paint-peeling goalposts. In the documentary Italia 90: Four Weeks That Changed the World, Toto revisits the apartment to see his father and to joke about that time. He said that once he had made a name for himself in that World Cup, he returned to see his father, who was waving “like the Pope” to a screaming crowd below him and simply shouting: “TOTÒ.”

It was a consolation for Schillaci, but also a regret, that he is best remembered for those four weeks, the Italia 90 bubble in the middle of a long career. Amat Palermo, his first club, was named after the local bus company and it was there that he first came to the attention of Messina. He spent seven happy years there from 1982 to 1989 and suddenly the stars aligned. After scoring 23 goals in Serie B, he was snapped up by Juventus and, to his own surprise, continued his run by scoring 15 times in Serie A and 21 in all competitions.

Let’s not forget that this was a time when calcio ruled the world; Schillaci achieved this against some of the best defences ever assembled in a single competition. His diminutive stature and agile movement gave even his routine goals an edge, and his iconic celebrations transmitted the euphoric high of goals to those watching. It was on the back of this season that he would be called up to the national team. For Totò, the honour of representing his country would always be the priority.

After Italia 90, Schillaci continued at Juve and in 1992 moved to Inter, before moving to Japan to finish his career. He would admit that the rest of his career did not reach the heights of “un’estate Italiana”, especially when those “Notti Magiche” were sung by Edoardo Bennato and Gianni Nannini. But how can you top what he did in those four weeks in the summer of 1990? “Mio Dio”, as the Italians say.

Schillaci followed up his header against Austria with a goal against Czechoslovakia, before scoring perhaps the best goal of the World Cup against Uruguay in Rome. Walter Zenga’s long pass was superbly met and dummy’d, giving him the ball straight away, allowing Totò to hammer the ball past Fernando Álvez into the Uruguayan goal. The ball dived perfectly and he was brought to the ground, celebrating with his hands up, his eyes bulging, drenched in Italian pride and emotion.

He defeated Ireland in the quarter-finals, punishing a defensive error, and scored again in the semi-final against Argentina in Naples, but it was not to be as Italy lost on penalties. Roberto Baggio gave him the final gift of the campaign by giving him a shot at the Golden Boot, making him take the penalty against England in the third place play-off, which saw him top the table at Italia 90. Schillaci would finish runner-up to Lothar Matthaus for the Ballon d’Or that year.

Schillaci’s passing is hard for many around the world, and not just in Italy. The 1990 World Cup brought a fresh perspective to football; it was modern, it had a beauty, a romance, but it kept its secrets. It made fans dream in a way that few tournaments before or since have done.

At its core was a player who wasn’t as spectacular as many of those around him, and he knew it. What Totò did was seize an opportunity and run with it with all the passion, emotion and pride he could muster. Schillaci lived his best life that summer; for that, he will be an Italian hero as eternal as the city where he created those memories.