The hero of Italia ’90hospitalized at the Civic hospital in Palermo since the beginning of September, is once again in critical condition. In recent days there had been some encouraging improvements with the reduction of oxygen to breathe, but in the last few hours, according to what has been learned from health sources from the Palermo hospital complex, the situation has once again become delicate and difficult.
Totò Schillaci, having been treated for a few years for cancer, he had already undergone operations, had been treated at the La Maddalena clinic and is now in the city hospital. A first communication about his conditions appeared on his social profile a few days ago: “Totò is in stable condition and is monitored by a team of doctors night and day. Go Totò”.
The family had decided to communicate “given the countless calls from many newspapers and given the bad news circulating”. Then the wish to recover, “Go Totò”. Schillaci, 59 years old, has already undergone two colon operations and talked about his illness, the treatments, the fear at the time of diagnosis and then the illness that marked him. An evil that he had defeated and which would now return.
While he plays the most important match ever, the Italians who followed him wearing the shirts of the national team and then of Messina, Juventus, Inter and Jubilo Iwata continue to leave messages of encouragement and affection for the great champion on social media.
The post from Totò Schillaci’s family (Instagram)
The shots of Italia 90 and the wish: “Go Totò”
Hugged after the goal, then close before taking to the pitch with the blue shirt during the “magical nights”. The shots are moving Totò Schillaci and Roberto Baggio shared on the social page of the striker hospitalized and accompanied by the phrase of encouragement: “Go Totò”. The best wishes to the striker who made the fans dream during the last World Cup played on home soil by Italy come from Roberto Baggio’s very popular fan page, not directly from the former number ten.
The goals of the “magical nights”
The goals in the “magical nights” of Italia 90 – immortalized by the song of Gianna Nannini and Edorado Bennato – delivered Totò Schillacifrom San Giovanni Apostolo, Palermo, to the history of Italian football. Coach Azeglio Vicini’s Italy was aiming for the final, dragged by the goals of a Sicilian boy called up as a reserve and becoming a starter with goals. One goal after another that dragged Vicini’s Azzurri eleven meters from the World Cup final.
Totò Schillaci scores for England during Italia 90 (Handle)
The dream was shattered in Argentina Maradonawho beat the Azzurri on penalties in the semi-final in Naples. In that unfortunate World Cup for the Azzurri – we finished third – Totò was top scorer. And in 1990 he even came second in the Ballon d’Or rankings. “We could have won, but it went the way it went,” he always said, recalling those days.
“It was a team of great champions, Baggio, Baresi, Vialli, Maldini, Ancelotti – he said – and I had the honor of playing with them. It was an important environment, I was proud because it’s not like there were all these Sicilians in the blue circle.”
“I fought like hell to earn a starting place with the Azzurri, I was only thinking about that. Were the Italians in love with me? I didn’t understand this enthusiasm, I discovered it later and I still see it today. Everywhere they recognize me and celebrate me, they show me the videos, they want me to tell stories, people remember Italia ’90 and ask me to make my eyes go crazy again!”. Schillaci has many memories of those days, one above all.
“In the final against England I got a penalty. Baggio told me: you take it, so you win the ranking of goalscorers. An unexpected gift.” Yet they said he had a fight with Baggio…
Life, career
Born on December 1, 1964 in Palermo and raised in the working-class neighborhood of San Giovanni Apostolo, he began playing in the local team that represented the Palermo municipal company of the same name.
In 1982 he was hired by Messinain Serie C2. In the 1985-86 season he contributed with 11 goals as the team promoted to Serie B. His coach Franco Scoglio said of him: “He had a desire to score goals that I have never seen in anyone”.
From the Messina landed at Juventus, Inter and Jubilo Iwata (Japan), where he became an idol.
The Italia 90 footballers received at the Quirinale (Handle)
Three brothers and a sister, his father, who was a bricklayer, was always his biggest fan and accompanied him everywhere just to make him play. He worked as a tire dealer, a pastry boy, a street vendor. Until the recruitment in Messina.
Schillaci was at the La Maddalena oncology clinic when, on 16 January 2023, Messina Denaro boss was arrested. “It was 8.15 in the morning – he himself said – I was waiting for my check-up, because there I am being treated by doctors Mezzatesta and Mandalà. I had just finished breakfast at the bar, in an instant I found myself surrounded by hooded people with guns blazing. I thought it was an attack. Then the police came forward, but for a moment I and those around me were scared, there was confusion.”
The former bomber he also managed a sports center for young people for years. “I love Palermo and it bothers me a lot to see it associated only with crime, because it offers so many beautiful things. We need to invest in the neighbourhoods, yes, taking young people off the streets. I took over the sports centre, Louis Ribolla, in a popular area, precisely to give back something of what was given to me by the city,” he said.
In 2004 he participated in the Island of the Famous, a year ago he participated with his wife Barbara in the Beijing Express program. Shortly before, he had undergone cancer surgery twice. “The show – he said – was a revenge on the disease that made me suffer so much”.
Totò Schillaci on the Island of the Famous in 2004 (LaPresse)
