«Vialli said goodbye to us with a smile. Suffering, he came to greet his Sampdoria »-Corriere.it

From 28 December Gianluca Vialli no longer replied to messages, two weeks earlier, exhausted by the progress of the disease, he had given himself strength. He had taken a plane from London, heading for Genoa. «He wanted to see us all together again. His eyes were tired, Luca. He kept looking at us from afar and smiled at us ».

Beppe Dossena that day, like all those of Sampd’oro, was at the Porto Antico for the presentation of the docufilm “La bellaseason” which recounts the year of Sampdoria’s championship. «It was a party, it was somehow Luca’s farewell».

The condolences of the world of football and politics: the reactions from former teammates to the widows of Mihajlovic and Paolo Rossi

What do you remember of that day?
“We were happy. Then I looked at Luca and I was overwhelmed with sadness: thin, he walked badly. No one mentioned the disease but I had the very clear feeling that he had wanted to defy physical pain to be with us for the last time in that Samp that he had loved so intensely. He couldn’t stand up. He knew he was saying goodbye to us definitively but he had no desire to give up. After a few days he returned to London and was hospitalised.’

Have you ever heard it?
«Honestly no, Attilio Lombardo gave me information almost every day, unfortunately we expected that he would leave us at any moment. But when that happens you realize you’re never prepared.”

How did he know?
«A message from one of our teammates, I was with Attilio and we burst into tears. Life passes before you, you remember the thousand situations we’ve been in together. Cry, yes cry. Because it hurts. I realize, however, that it is our selfishness ».

What do you mean?
«We don’t want to lose the people we love and we would like them with us even when they are sick. Luca has been suffering a lot lately, and the thought that he is now crossing a corridor of light must give us peace. He should make us calm. Faith helps.”

Would Vialli have asked you not to cry for him?
«There is no doubt, Luca is a person with a strong sense of empathy. An aggregator. I am speaking of it in the present tense because his vitality is immortal. Positive man, optimistic even towards the disease ».

What’s left of Luca the player?
«The pride of having been next to a very great, a generous man who has never thought only of himself, on and off the pitch. Old-time striker. And even when he got angry he didn’t raise his tone.’

An anecdote.
«He was convinced that no one passed the ball to him on the pitch… everyone gave it to Mancini. He burst into the locker room and demanded an account of this. Cerezo answered him: you play the centre-forward, he shuts up and waits. It ended with a general laugh. Well, this was Luke. It’s Luke.”