It was almost 20 years on from when he scored that goal in the Stadio Olimpico, the one that ended our Italia 90 odyssey, that Toto Schillaci paid a visit to Dublin to do some promotional work for a bookmakers.
When our chat turned to that night in Rome, he somewhat insensitively relived the goal in excruciating detail, like he’d scored it five minutes before. It got to the point where you half expected him to re-enact his frenzied wide-eyed celebration around the foyer of the hotel.
Roberto Baggio ... Schillaci ….. Giuseppe Giannini ….. Roberto Donadoni’s shot ….. Packie Bonner’s parry and…..
“Toto? Stop.”
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“Ah, scusa!”
It was probably the closest the Sicilian ever came to apologising for leaving Irish hearts in smithereens, although he was kind enough to pay tribute to the Irish team he faced that night. “Very tough, physical – big beasts,” he said, recalling that he ended the game with a black eye.
Italy’s own odyssey ended in the semi-finals when they lost on penalties to Argentina, but Schillaci’s goal in their third-place victory over England brought his tally for the tournament to six, making him the leading scorer and earning him the Golden Boot as well as the player of the tournament award.
The “Notti Magiche di Toto Schillaci”, the “magical nights of Toto Schillaci”, was how the Italians described his contribution to that World Cup, one that surprised the then Juventus striker as much as anyone. “I didn’t expect to be in the squad, never mind the team,” he said.
Italia 90 proved to be the peak of his career, even though he was only 25, Schillaci winning the last of his 16 caps the following year. A priest in Palermo even held a mass for the locals to pray for him to rediscover his goalscoring form, but their prayers, largely, went unanswered. After a short spell with Inter Milan he finished his career in Japan.
His post-playing life was a varied one, Schillaci running a soccer school in Palermo, doing lots of media work, appearing in a number of shows, including Italy’s version of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, and even trying his hand at acting. Not that the man from Sicily was stereotyped, or anything, but his first role was that of a mafia boss.
Like any Sicilian, though, he was well used to the gibes. “You’ve killed Falcone,” Giovanni Trapattoni, his coach at Juventus, hollered at him after the murder in Palermo of Judge Giovanni Falcone, the prominent anti-mafia investigator. “Mister, I was with Baggio, you can ask him,” he replied. “I’ve not killed anyone today.”
One of the quirkier features of his life after football was his relationship with Ireland. “To be loved here is very special,” he said that time in Dublin, although he noted that “the sun finds it very difficult here”. He talked about the warmth of the reception he always got when he visited Ireland, although quite how anyone recognised him after he went from balding on top to having a spectacular head of hair in later years is hard to know. “Toto Depp,” his teasing friends would call him in reference to the miraculous mane.
But there was a real affection for him, probably because it was just too hard to begrudge someone who took such unadulterated joy in scoring goals. Smithwicks even hired him for a television ad, which only added to the legend.
Schillaci died in his native Palermo on Wednesday at the age of just 59, having been diagnosed with colon cancer in 2022. “A football icon is leaving us, a man who has entered the hearts of Italians and sports fans around the world,” said prime minister Giorgia Meloni. “The striker from the magic nights of Italia ‘90 with our national team. Thanks for the emotions you gave us, for having made us dream, celebrate, embrace and wave our national flag.”
The “Notti Magiche di Toto Schillaci” changed his life. “I had the Midas touch,” he said. “It made me known throughout the world, but it didn’t change me – I was the same man after the World Cup, all that changed was everything around me. I always tried to give my all, it was natural that I would be smiling and enjoying myself. I played with joy.” That he did.
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