Salvatore (Toto) Schillaci RIP

Sad news saw him in the 3rd/4th playoff v England at Italia 90, think he scored the 1st goal . Remember leaving the stadium and all the Italians chanting his name . RIP Toto
 
stoneblue said:
I believe he was a former Inter player so it would be a nice touch to have a minute's silence tonight.
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Yes, he played with us in 1992-1993 and 1993-1994 campaigns, after having signed him in summer '92 but not obtaining great results in terms of scoring. He left Inter just before the UEFA Cup finals against Salzburg, to play in Japan. I think he was the first italian to play there. He became a real celebrity in that country.

Thanks for all Totò. You gave us the possibility to dream a lot during 1990 early summer.

A curiosity: a very famous head coach here in Italy, a Bohemian who has been living in Italy since the beginnings of '70s, Zdenek Zeman, in his autobiography has written that Salvatore 'Totò''s cousin, Maurizio, for him, was stronger than Totò in terms of natural skills. Maurizio didn't have much luck in his career and also in life, being now more or less homeless with some dependecies that affected greatly his life.

Zeman trained both during the 1988-1989 season in Serie B with Messina. That sicilian team scored 46 goals overall and Totò made the half of them, but they reached only the 8th position. He had Maurizio under his orders also at the beginnings of '80s at Palermo (Zeman found almost by himself the juvenile team from that city in the '70s), then in the middle of that decade at Licata, a small town, that reached italian II division and it's remembered also nowadays for their offensively style of playing.

These, some words from the book "Beauty has no price" by Zeman:
"I used to line up him (Maurizio) on the wing and he had everything you need for that role: running, progression, shots, a sense of goal and altruism. Maurizio has always been a generous (...) good as bread, but with he was an oddball. Since he was a kid he knew every nook and cranny of the streets of Palermo. If someone had something stolen, he immediately knew who to ask to get it back. Fences, petty thieves, bad friends: he didn't miss anything. To prevent him from "waste him", in the youth squad we accomodated him in a boarding house with other boys: he slept there maybe twice. ( ...) If you were with him in the car you had to make the sign of the cross, 'cause he used to drive like a maniac. I don't know if it was courage or recklessness, but he claimed: "If a car is coming from the other way towards me, in the end it will be the other driver to move away, not me". Every time a teammate happened to step out of his car you could see his face whitening. Giacomo Modica (another player) often told about when one afternoon in Licata Maurizio invited him: "Come on, let's go and get a granita (a slush)". Giacomo got into the car and Maurizio took him to a coffee bar in Palermo, almost two hundred kilometers away ... He was like that, all genius and wildness. When he got his salary in Licata, he had to spend it all in a few days. I told to the executive of the club: "Give me Schillaci's wage and I'll store it in a bank, so if he needs something he can ask for it to me". It lasted two months, he always needed his money, he couldn't be controlled".
 
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The Lightbowne Cowboy said:
Great player for a few years then just seemed to dissappear. Whether that was because Italian football was shite and no bugger watched it after a year or he just declined. A colourful character all the same. RIP Toto.
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Eh, Italian football was the pinnacle from the early/mid 80’s to the turn of the millennium. Players like Battistuta (league top scorer), Effenberg, Laudrup, Mazinho and Hagi all suffered relegations in the early 90’s. The level of football on offer was off the charts, even the worst sides had global stars!!
 
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Bluearmy said:
Eh, Italian football was the pinnacle from the early/mid 80’s to the turn of the millennium. Players like Battistuta (league top scorer), Effenberg, Laudrup, Mazinho and Hagi all suffered relegations in the early 90’s. The level of football on offer was off the charts, even the worst sides had global stars!!
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No, not for me mucker. It was like watching paint dry. Yes, it was a top league with some amazing players, but when C4 put them games on Sundays shortly after the 1990 world Cup, I was excited thinking this is gonna be good. How wrong was I. If you liked watching defensive masterclasses, 0-0 and 1-0 games then you were in for a treat. Just wasn't for me.
 
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liambrady said:
Yes, he played with us in 1992-1993 and 1993-1994 campaigns, after having signed him in summer '92 but not obtaining great results in terms of scoring. He left Inter just before the UEFA Cup finals against Salzburg, to play in Japan. I think he was the first italian to play there. He became a real celebrity in that country.

Thanks for all Totò. You gave us the possibility to dream a lot during 1990 early summer.

A curiosity: a very famous head coach here in Italy, a Bohemian who has been living in Italy since the beginnings of '70s, Zdenek Zeman, in his autobiography has written that Salvatore 'Totò''s cousin, Maurizio, for him, was stronger than Totò in terms of natural skills. Maurizio didn't have much luck in his career and also in life, being now more or less homeless with some dependecies that affected greatly his life.

Zeman trained both during the 1988-1989 season in Serie B with Messina. That sicilian team scored 46 goals overall and Totò made the half of them, but they reached only the 8th position. He had Maurizio under his orders also at the beginnings of '80s at Palermo (Zeman found almost by himself the juvenile team from that city in the '70s), then in the middle of that decade at Licata, a small town, that reached italian II division and it's remember also nowadays for their offensively style of playing.

These, some words from the book "Beauty has no price" by Zeman:
"I used to line up him (Maurizio) on the wing and he had everything you need for that role: running, progression, shots, a sense of goal and altruism. Maurizio has always been a generous (...) good as bread, but with he was an oddball. Since he was a kid he knew every nook and cranny of the streets of Palermo. If someone had something stolen, he immediately knew who to ask to get it back. Fences, petty thieves, bad friends: he didn't miss anything. To prevent him from "waste him", in the youth squad we accomodated him in a boarding house with other boys: he slept there maybe twice. ( ...) If you were with him in the car you had to make the sign of the cross, 'cause he used to drive like a maniac. I don't know if it was courage or recklessness, but he claimed: "If a car is coming from the other way towards me, in the end it will be the other driver to move away, not me". Every time a teammate happened to step out of his car you could see his face whitening. Giacomo Modica (another player) often told about when one afternoon in Licata Maurizio invited him: "Come on, let's go and get a granita (a slush)". Giacomo got into the car and Maurizio took him to a coffee bar in Palermo, almost two hundred kilometers away ... He was like that, all genius and wildness. When he got his salary in Licata, he had to spend it all in a few days. I told to the executive of the club: "Give me Schillaci's wage and I'll store it in a bank, so if he needs something he can ask for it to me". It lasted two months, he always needed his money, he couldn't be controlled".
Click to expand...
Thank you - very interesting and "Sicilian" - reads like something from a Puzo novel
 
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The Lightbowne Cowboy said:
No, not for me mucker. It was like watching paint dry. Yes, it was a top league with some amazon players, but when C4 put them games on Sundays shortly after the 1990 world Cup, I was excited thinking this is gonna be good. How wrong was I. If you liked watching defensive masterclasses, 0-0 and 1-0 games then you were in for a treat. Just wasn't for me.
Click to expand...


I used to enjoy it for the shithousery, 75 minutes of passing it round at the back 10 minutes of time wasting and kicking peoples legs off and 5 minutes of football :)
 
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