Totò Schillaci, footballer whose goals lit up Italia ’90 but whose career rapidly fell away

Totò Schillaci, the footballer, who has died of cancer aged 59, enjoyed a season’s fame in 1990 when he rose from near-obscurity to become Italy’s talisman during that summer’s World Cup and the tournament’s top scorer; his exploits, and his own unaffected delight at them, enchanted his countrymen, yet within a few months they had turned their backs on him for good.

A native of Sicily, Salvatore Schillaci was short, balding and hot-tempered, but on the pitch he was swift and mobile, an instinctive taker of chances rather than a cool-headed finisher. “I’ve never seen a player with a greater desire to score,” said his first manager, Franco Scoglio.

Until 1989, Schillaci had laboured for seven years as a striker in the lower divisions with Messina. Although he was top scorer in Serie B that season, it came as a surprise when Giovanni Trapattoni, looking to rebuild his Juventus team, brought Schillaci to Turin for 6 billion lire (worth about 7.3 million euros today, or £6.2 million).

Schillaci, then 25, claimed 21 goals in all competitions in his first season there, winning the Coppa Italia and Uefa Cup. In March 1990, Italy’s manager Azeglio Vicini gave him his first international start. When Schillaci was named in the squad for the World Cup, however, which Italy was hosting, few saw him doing more than making up the numbers: ahead of him were the likes of Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Mancini and Roberto Biaggio.

But with 75 minutes gone and no score in Italy’s opening match against Austria in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Vicini summoned Schillaci from the bench. With almost his first touch, the Sicilian headed home Vialli’s cross. So began an extraordinary few weeks in which he always appeared to be in the right place and where everything he did came off.

Although he did not feature in the next group match, a narrow victory over the USA, he played from the start against Czechoslovakia – and scored. Then, against Uruguay in the round of 16, he got the first goal with a snap shot from distance and set up the other in a 2-0 victory.

The tournament had initially met with much scepticism in Italy. The new stadiums, for instance, which so impressed England fans, were seen by locals as a characteristic example of money being spent on what looked good rather than what was needed. However, as a series of notti magiche (magical nights) gripped the nation, for once its many disparate identities were briefly united in hope.

Where English memories would be formed of Pavarotti’s voice and Paul Gascoigne’s tears, Italian ones revolved about Schillaci’s goals. Northern disdain for the south of Italy melted before his humility – “I’m not a star,” he insisted – and his joy in seeing his dreams realised. “I must be asleep,” he told the press. “Don’t wake me up.”

In the quarter-final, against Jack Charlton’s Ireland, Schillaci’s hot streak continued as he scored the only goal of the match. Then came the semi-final. Italy’s progress hitherto had depended on two other factors: playing all their matches in Rome, and a defence, marshalled by Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini, that had yet to concede a goal.

The game against Argentina, however, was in Naples, where the South Americans’ maestro, Diego Maradona, played his league football and drew some cheers from local fans. None the less, Schillaci struck first, on hand to poke home a shot which had rebounded off the Argentina goalkeeper.

Yet Argentina soon equalised and, having played for a draw, went on to win on penalties. Schillaci refused to take one, pleading injury and poor technique. After the match, he spent two hours in the changing room, alternately smoking and crying.

At Baggio’s urging, he did take a penalty in the next match, scoring the winner against England to seal Italy’s third-place finish and, as Baggio had pointed out, cement his own status as top scorer.

With six goals in six matches he was awarded the Golden Boot, as well as the Golden Ball for the best player of the tournament. Later that year he came second in the Ballon d’Or vote for best European player, behind only Lothar Matthäus, who had led West Germany to victory at Italia ’90.

Then, just as suddenly, Schillaci’s mayfly moment of glory was over. His form for Juventus fell away sharply the next season, then Vialli arrived and took his place. A rumpus ensued when Schillaci told a player for Bologna who had provoked him that he would have him shot. The club also disapproved of Schillaci separating from his wife. He scored one more goal for Italy, but after only 16 caps, and barely a year on from winning the Golden Boot, his international career was over.

After 36 goals in 132 matches for Juventus, he moved to Inter Milan in 1992. Yet he was now regularly hampered by injury and in two years made just 36 appearances. Moreover, the crowd began to get after him, using slurs about Southern stereotypes. His situation was not helped when his brother was arrested for stealing tyres; later, his father would be accused of corruption and a cousin jailed for selling drugs.

Schillaci received a medal for Inter’s Uefa Cup win in 1994, but by the time of the final he had already joined Júbilo Iwata in Japan, becoming the first Italian to play in the J-League. He was still only 29 but never graced European football again.

Salvatore Schillaci was born in Palermo on December 1 1964. His father was a rubbish collector, and the family lived in the city’s poverty-stricken and Mafia-riddled San Giovanni Apostolo neighbourhood. Schillaci would later say, however, that because he always had a ball to play with, he kept out of trouble.

Two of his brothers and later a nephew also became professional footballers. Schillaci made his mark as a junior player by scoring 75 goals in a season, often turning out for two matches in a day. His first team was that of the local bus company, then at 18 he was signed by Messina, traditional rivals of his hometown club.

Messina were then in Serie C2, the fourth flight, but within four years they had reached Serie B, twice promoted as champions. After recovering from a knee operation in 1987, Schillaci benefited from the guidance of a new manager, Zdeněk Zeman, who made him captain.

Schillaci had few regrets about leaving the Italian game for Japan. Júbilo Iwata, where he was to play with the Brazilian midfielder, Dunga, paid him an annual salary of $1 million, as well as providing him with a house and a chauffeur. He stayed for three seasons, winning a league medal in 1997, although he made only three appearances. In 95 matches in total, he scored 63 goals.

He retired in 1999, not yet 35, and ran a football academy in Palermo as well as making occasional appearances as an actor and on reality television programmes.

Totò Schillaci was divorced from his first wife, Rita Bonaccorso, with whom he had a son and a daughter. He had another daughter by a subsequent relationship. He is survived by his children and by his second wife, Barbara Lombardo, whom he married in 2012.

Totò Schillaci, born December 1 1964, died September 18 2024