Death: Former Italian international Toto Schillaci dies at 59

Salvatore Schillaci has died. MAXPPP – Daniele Badolato

Former Italian international Salvatore Schillaci, known by the diminutive Toto and for his prolific 1990 World Cup, has died at the age of 59, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) announced on Wednesday, September 18.

“Toto Schillaci, the symbolic player of the 1990 World Cup in Italy, has died on Wednesday at the age of 59”, said the FIGC in a statement, which decided that a minute of silence would take place before all the matches scheduled in Italy from Wednesday to Sunday.

“He made an entire country dream during the magical nights of the 1990 World Cup. Inter Milan stands by the Schillaci family after the death of Toto”, the reigning Italian champions, whose jersey Schillaci wore between 1992 and 1994, said in a statement.

Schillaci had been suffering from colon cancer for several months and was hospitalized in intensive care last week.

Semi-final

Although he wore the Juventus jersey (1989-92) and Inter and won the 1990 UEFA Cup with Juve, the pocket-sized forward (1.73 m), trained in Messina, entered the legend of Italian football during the 1990 World Cup held at home, where he finished top scorer with six goals.

Led by the unexpected Schillaci, the Nazionale reached the semi-final where, in Naples, they suffered the law of Diego Maradona's Argentina on penalties (1-1 a.p., 4 pens to 3) despite the opening score by the inevitable “Toto” in the 17th minute.

In the match for third place against England, Schillaci made the difference by scoring a penalty in the 86th minute, shortly after England equalised (2-1).

Schillaci honoured his 17th and final selection in the Nazionale jersey, for a total of seven goals, in 1991.

He had finished his career in Japan in 1997.

After leaving the football field, he had returned to Sicily and had created a football school in Palermo. He had appeared in a reality TV show in 2004 and had recently participated in the Italian version of the game show “Beijing Express”, revealing on that occasion that he was suffering from cancer.