Gianluca Vialli biography: Boss and Footballer

Gianluca Vialli biography

Italian football player and Boss

Soccer player

Playing position Striker

Place of birth Cremona, Italy

born July 9, 1964 in Cremona

Cremona is a city in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left shore of the Po river in the middle of the Pianura padana (Po valley). It is the capital of the province of Cremona.

A soccer pro player from an upper class background.

A retired Italian football striker and manager.

Career

Cremonese 105 (23)
Sampdoria 223 (85)
Juventus 105 (38)
Chelsea 54 (21)

Italy 59 (16)

Teams managed
1998-00 Chelsea (player-manager)
2001-02 Watford

Playing career
Vialli's career started in 1980 when, signing for local side Cremonese. After scoring 10 goals for the side in the 83-84 season, he was transferred to Sampdoria. At Sampdoria he formed a prolific strike partnership with team mate and childhood friend Roberto Mancini, earning the nickname The Goal Twins. With Vialli at his best, Sampdoria had the most successful era in its history. They won a first ever Serie A championship in the 1990-91 season, in which Vialli was league top scorer with 19 goals, one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1990) - where he scored both goals in the 2-0 win over Anderlecht in the final - and three Italian Cups (in 1985, 1988 and 1989). They also reached the European Cup final in 1992, losing to Spain's FC Barcelona.

While at Sampdoria, Vialli made his debut for Italy in a friendly match against Poland in 1985. He scored his first ever national goal in a Euro 88 qualification match against Malta in 1986. He was included in the squad for the 1986 World Cup. He also played at Euro 88 (scoring the winner in Italy's 1-0 win over Spain) and was part of the squad which finished 3rd at Italia '90. Vialli was expected to have a huge impact on the tournament and started Italy's first two games. He set up a goal in Italy's opening game with Austria and in the following game hit a post from a penalty against the USA. His poor form and injury saw him dropped in favour of Roberto Baggio and Toto Schillaci, but he did make a surprise return in the semi final in place of Baggio. He was subbed in favour of Baggio during the match. In a recent interview with Irish radio station Newstalk Vialli claimed he had been suffering with a chest infection in the early part of the tournament.

He moved to Juventus shortly after the European Cup final loss for a world record fee of £12.5million. Vialli won a UEFA Cup in his first season with Juventus. Ironically, he had his last international cap in 1994 against Malta in a 1994 World Cup qualification match where he scored, but was left out of the squad for the World Cup finals following a dispute with coach Arrigo Sacchi, after which Vialli declared he would be supporting Brazil. He won another Scudetto and Italian Cup with Juve in 1995, scoring 16 goals during the season, but Juve were denied a treble after defeat in the UEFA Cup final to Parma, despite Vialli scoring a spectacular second leg goal. He ended in Turin by captaining the side to a Champions League final win over Ajax Amsterdam in 1996.

Vialli joined Chelsea in the summer of 1996 for $1million a year (after rejecting offer from Rangers) as part of manager Ruud Gullit's cosmopolitan rebuilding of the side, and won the FA Cup in his first season, including two goals in a spectacular 4-2 comeback over Liverpool in the fourth round, but a feud with Gullit saw him regularly left out of the starting line-up; in the final itself he was limited to a five-minute cameo appearance as a late substitute. During the 1997-98 season, he scored four goals in a win over Barnsley and a hat-trick against Norwegian side Tromsø in the Cup Winners' Cup, but still couldn't cement his place in the side.

Managerial career
Gullit was sacked in February 1998 and Vialli was appointed player manager. He became one of the club's most successful managers, winning the Worthington Cup and Cup Winners' Cup just months after taking charge, and then the European Super Cup beating Real Madrid. His team also finished third in the Premiership in 1998-99, four points behind champions Man Utd in what was Chelsea's highest league finish since 1970. He made his final league appearance for the club against Derby County (With his final playing appearance against Instant Dict FC in Hong Kong), and ended his Chelsea career with 83 appearances and 40 goals.

The following season saw them reach the quarter finals of the Champions League in their debut appearance, the highlight of which was a 3 - 1 victory over FC Barcelona, although they were eventually knocked out on aggregate by the same side. He managed to lead the club to FA Cup triumph in 2000 winning his fourth official trophy with the London club in less than three years. He started the 2000-01 season winning the FA Charity Shield after beating Man Utd. But he was sacked five games to the season after an indifferent start and having fallen out with several players, including Gianfranco Zola, Didier Deschamps and Dan Petrescu.

He took up an offer to manage First Division club Watford in 2001-02. Despite making wholesale and expensive changes to the playing and coaching staff, the Hertfordshire side finished an unimpressive 14th and Vialli was sacked after a year. Following this, he was drawn into a lengthy dispute with the club over the payment of the remainder of his contract.

In 2006, he published with friend and football journalist Gabriele Marcotti a book called The Italian Job. The book discusses the differences between English and Italian football. Vialli is donating proceeds of the book to the "Fondiazione Vialli et Mauro per la Ricerca e lo sport", which is a charitable foundation he himself founded that raises funds for research into cancer and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

He worked as a TV football commentator for Sky Italia.

Honours -

Titles with Sampdoria
Serie A:- 90-91
Italian Cup - 84-85, 87-88, 88-89
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup - 89-90
European Cup - runner-up 91-92
European Super Cup - runner-up 90.

Titles with Juventus
Serie A - 94-95
Italian Cup - 94-95
UEFA Cup - 92-93 (runner-up 94-95)
European Cup - 95-96

Titles with Chelsea
FA Cup - 96-97 (as a player), 99-00
League Cup - 97-98
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup- 97-98
European Super Cup - 98
FA Charity Shield- 2000

Ganluca Valli Ginluca Viali Giannluca Viaalli Gannluca Vialle

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