Salvatore Schillaci

Salvatore Schillaci
Personal information
Full nameSalvatore Schillaci
Date of birth1 December 1964
Place of birthPalermo, Italy
Height1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing positionStriker
Youth career
1981AMAT Palermo
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
1982–1989Messina219(61)
1989–1992Juventus90(26)
1992–1994Internazionale30(11)
1994–1997Júbilo Iwata78(56)
Total417(154)
National team
1989Italy U211(0)
1990–1991Italy16(7)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Salvatore Schillaci (Italian pronunciation: [salvaˈtore skilˈlatʃi]; born 1 December 1964), commonly referred to by his nickname Totò is a former Italian football player. During his club career, he played for Messina (1982–1989), Juventus (1989–1992), Internazionale (1992–1994) and Júbilo Iwata (1994–1997).

At international level he was the surprise star of the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Coming on as substitute in Italy's first game, Schillaci went on to score six goals throughout the World Cup, claiming the Golden Boot as the leading goalscorer, and received the Golden Ball as player of the tournament ahead of established stars Lothar Matthäus and Diego Maradona who came second and third.[1] A champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse (see Schillaci) was named after him following his performances at the 1990 FIFA World Cup.[2] A prolific and opportunistic goalscorer, his former Messina manager Francesco Scoglio described him by saying he had "never seen a play who wanted to score as much as him."[3]

Club career

Born in Palermo, Italy, from a poor family, Schillaci started to play for an amateur team of his native city, Amat Palermo.[4] He then signed in 1982 for the Sicilian club Messina, where he played until 1989 and showed his goal-scoring abilities, most notably winning the Serie B top-scorer Award during the 1988-89 Serie B season, with 23 goals. He then joined Turin club Juventus, and made his debut in Serie A on 27 August 1989. Juventus, the "Old Lady" of Italian football, was at the time suffering from the breakup of the wonder team which dominated Italian football in the 1980s, under manager Giovanni Trapattoni; Schillaci's arrival coincided with a return to form under the direction of former legendary Juventus goalkeeper Dino Zoff. He featured prominently for the Turinese club that season, scoring 15 goals in a very positive year, which ended with Juventus winning both the 1989-90 Coppa Italia and the UEFA Cup titles. Due to his clever, inventive, aggressive attacking style, he was then selected by head coach of Italy, Azeglio Vicini, to play in the 1990 FIFA World Cup, to be hosted by Italy itself, despite being a novice in the arena of national team competitions.[4]

After the end of the 1990 World Cup, Schillaci played one more year for Juventus, alongside his Italy attacking team-mate Roberto Baggio, before joining Internazionale.[5] Schillaci did not leave a great record for the Inter fans, as well as for the Juventus ones, mainly because of the physical troubles which he suffered after the 1990 campaign. In 1994 he joined Japanese club Jubilo Iwata, becoming the first Italian player to play in the J. League, and he won the J. League Division 1 title with the club in 1997.[6]

Schillaci retired in 1999. Today he lives back in his native Palermo, where he owns a youth academy of football.[4]

International career

After making one over-age appearance for the Italy Under-21 side, under Cesare Maldini, Schilacci made his senior international debut for Italy under manager Azeglio Vicini, on 31 March 1990, in a 1-0 friendly away win over Switzerland, in Basel. He was subsequently called up for Italy's squad for the 1990 World Cup, to be played on home soil.[7]

At the 1990 World Cup, Schillaci replaced Andrea Carnevale during Italy's first match against Austria. He scored the decisive goal as the match ended with a 1–0 win for Italy. Against the USA, Schillaci again made an appearance as a substitute, but he started the next match, against Czechoslovakia, alongside Roberto Baggio. Italy won 2–0, with Baggio and Schillaci both scoring. Schillaci started alongside Baggio in Italy's next two matches of the knock-out stages, also opening the scoring in the second round and quarter-finals, against Uruguay and the Republic of Ireland respectively.[8]

For the semi-final match against defending champions Argentina, Gianluca Vialli replaced Baggio in the starting line-up, whereas Schillaci kept his place in the team. The match ended 1–1, with Schillaci scoring his fifth goal of the tournament, but Italy were eliminated after a penalty shoot-out.[4]

Schillaci scored the winning goal in Italy's 2–1 win in the third-place match against England from a penalty,[9] and won the Golden Boot, with six goals. Overall, he scored seven goals in sixteen caps for Italy between 1990-91, scoring his only other goal for Italy in a 2-1 away against Norway, in 1991, in an UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying match.[7]

International goals

Scores and results list Italy's goal tally first.
# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. 9 June 1990 Stadio Olimpico, Rome  Austria 1–0 1–0 1990 World Cup
2. 19 June 1990 Stadio Olimpico, Rome  Czechoslovakia 1–0 2–0 1990 World Cup
3. 25 June 1990 Stadio Olimpico, Rome  Uruguay 1–0 2–0 1990 World Cup
4. 30 June 1990 Stadio Olimpico, Rome  Republic of Ireland 1–0 1–0 1990 World Cup
5. 3 July 1990 Stadio San Paolo, Naples  Argentina 1–0 1–1
(3–4 p) 		1990 World Cup
6. 7 July 1990 Stadio San Nicola, Bari  England 2–1 2–1 1990 World Cup
7. 5 June 1991 Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo  Norway 1–2 1–2 Euro 1992 qualifier

Retirement

He appeared as a guest on Craig Doyle Live during UEFA Euro 2012.[10]

Everton FC South African midfielder Steven Pienaar is nicknamed Schillo after Schillaci.[11][12]

Career statistics

Club

Club performance League Cup League Cup Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Italy League Coppa Italia League Cup Total
1982–83MessinaSerie C2263
1983–84Serie C1264
1984–85314
1985–863111
1986–87Serie B333
1987–883713
1988–893523
1989–90JuventusSerie A3015
1990–91295
1991–92316
1992–93InternazionaleSerie A2160021237
1993–94953031156
Japan League Emperor's Cup J. League Cup Total
1994Júbilo IwataJ. League 118910452314
1995343100-3431
1996231500833118
199731002152
Country Italy 33998
Japan 7856101499365
Total 417154

International

[13]
Italy national team
YearAppsGoals
1990126
199141
Total167

Honours

Club

Messina
Juventus
Internazionale
Júbilo Iwata

International

Italy

Individual

Orders

5th Class/Knight: Cavaliere Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana: 1991[16]

References

  1. ↑ Salvatore Schillaci Statistics FIFA. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  2. ↑ "World Cup Stories: When 'Toto' Schillaci's stare was the star". BBC. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
  3. ↑ "Salvatore Schillaci". Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Clemente Angelo Lisi (2011). "A History of the World Cup, 1930-2010". p. 220. Scarecrow Press, 2011.
  5. ↑ "e' ufficiale: Schillaci all' Inter per 9 miliardi". Archiviostorico.corriere.it.
  6. ↑ "Schillaci, Accoglienza Da Star in Giappone – La Repubblica" (in Italian). Ricerca.repubblica.it. 15 April 1994.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "FIGC - Nazionale in cifre: Schilacci, Salvatore". http://www.figc.it/'' (in Italian). FIGC. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  8. ↑ "Italy Reaches Semifinals". New York Times. 1 July 1990. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  9. ↑ "Schillaci: "Vi racconto la mia avventura interista" | PALERMO CALCIO". Mediagol.It. 29 October 2009.
  10. ↑ "Schillaci set to join Craig Doyle tonight". RTÉ. 8 June 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  11. ↑ Landheer, Ernest (11 June 2008). "Pienaar: "South Africa Must Create A Family Unit"". mtnfootball.com. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
  12. ↑ Hawkey, Ian (19 April 2009). "Steven Pienaar: mother's pride". The Times (London). Retrieved 7 May 2010.(subscription required)
  13. ↑ Salvatore Schillaci at National-Football-Teams.com
  14. ↑ "UEFA Cup: All-time finals". Union des Associations Européennes de Football. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
  15. ↑ The European Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (1958–1971) was a football tournament organized by foreign trade fairs in European seven cities (London, Barcelona, Copenhagen, and others) played by professional and—in its first editions—amateur clubs. Along these lines, that competition is not recognised by the Union of European Football Associations as an UEFA club competition; cf. "UEFA Europa League: History". Union des Associations Européennes de Football. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
  16. ↑ "Onoreficenze". http://www.quirinale.it'' (in Italian). 30 September 1991. Retrieved 19 March 2015.