Schillaci, the ‘nobody’, had a fairy tale in the 1990 World Cup

The commercial for Old Smithwick beer, an advertising campaign launched before the 2002 World Cup, shows Irish friends talking to two Italians. One of them asks permission to introduce another acquaintance. Salvatore “Totó” Schillaci appears smiling, to the astonishment of the people in the bar.

It was a double joke. The forward scored the goal that eliminated Ireland in the 1990 World Cup. Shortly after, he disappeared from the media. He made few public appearances and hardly spoke to journalists.

Schilacci is one of the biggest enigmas in the history of the Worlds. A fairy tale of the time when the Italian Championship was the most watched on the planet and Italy, which would host the tournament between national teams, would enter as favorites.

The player was at Messina, in Serie B, in 1989. Twelve months later, the Azzurri games would be baptized as “le notti magiche di Totó Schillacci” (Totó Schillaci’s magical nights, in Italian). He shouldn’t even be there. He was the sixth forward in the order of preference of coach Azeglio Vicini. He was after Vialli, Carnevale, Serena, Mancini and Baggio.

More or less like Ronaldo would be in the 1994 World Cup. He was called up only to compose the squad. Not to step on the field.

“Let’s be honest. I was already happy to be called up. I had never played for the Italian national team until the World Cup. Just being on the bench, for me, was an incredible honor”, confessed Schillaci, years later.

With 14 minutes remaining and with the score at 0-0 with Austria at the packed Olympic Stadium, Vicini felt the urgency to change the attack. He didn’t want to put Roberto Baggio and he never liked Roberto Mancini. He sent Schillaci in.

It didn’t take long. One hundred and twenty seconds later, Toto did what became his trademark competition for the first time. The celebration with the maddened run, the bulging eyes. The expression of incredulity of someone who shouldn’t be there, let alone scoring a goal. Nonetheless…

During that June, Schilacci lived the dream. He madly celebrated six goals in the 1990 World Cup.

“I had no responsibilities. I was only one of 22. When I scored the goal against Austria, my vision went dark and I ran away, dumbfounded. I didn’t see anything. I stopped because I was hugged. Never in my life did I think I would live that. goal for my country at the World Cup. Indescribable.”

That tournament should be the World Cup for the Dutch Marco van Basten, the Brazilian Careca, the Uruguayan Ruben Sosa. It was the most imponderable tournament ever organized by FIFA. Ireland reached the quarter-finals without winning a match. It lost to Italy only because Pat Bonner slipped and for being another “magic notte di Totó Schillaci”. Diego Maradona’s ankle felt like a melon. However, he and Jorge Burruchaga took Argentina to the final, causing Brazil to fall along the way.

Italy lost in the semi-final against the Argentines in Naples, and Schillaci was not called up to take one of the penalties in the penalty shootout.

“I had a lot of pain in my ankle. If I had to hit, I would hit. Honestly, what did I have to lose? I had already scored five in the tournament. If I wasted it, no one would have the courage to say I was a villain”, he confesses. The roles went to Aldo Serena and Donadoni.

After the Cup, Schillaci scored just one more goal for Italy, in a friendly against Norway. He transferred from Juventus to Internazionale, where he played too little and was badly injured. It was difficult to go back to being a national hero. He was increasingly treading the path of the forward who, when summoned by Vicini, was maliciously dubbed “signor nessuno” (nobody in Italian). A Sicilian who came out of poverty, he spent a long time in amateur leagues and Serie B before conquering the country.

It would be normal for Salvatore to want the fairy tale to last forever. But from 1992 onwards, he was increasingly ostracized, less than two years after being the top scorer at the World Cup. He started to go into depression. Things got worse the following year.

Gianluigi Lentini was bought by Milan as the biggest transaction in football history until then: 15 million euros (R$ 79 million at the current price) in 1992. He suffered a serious car accident the following year and was in a coma. When the press arrived at the hospital, there was a woman discreetly leaving the place, in tears. Every day, she visited the player, always wearing sunglasses and a hat. Some reporters found it strange and researched the story.

It was Rita Schillaci, Toto’s wife.

The following year, as if to try to bury the past, he was the first Italian to transfer to the J-League. He signed with Jubilo Iwata. It was good for him. He was champion again and regained what he had lost in his homeland: the respect of colleagues, the affection of the fans and self-esteem.

Schillaci hung up his boots in 1999. He opened a football school in Palermo and spent years running away from the press. He reappeared in the Irish beer commercial. In 2003, he accepted an invitation from the Italian state TV RAI to participate in “L’isola dei famosi” (the island of the famous, in Italian), the local version of the program “No Limite”. Married for the third time, he went on to accept requests for interviews and reconnect with his magical nights of 1990.