Gianluca Vialli

Gianluca Vialli

Personal information
Full name	Gianluca Vialli
Date of birth	9 July 1964 (1964-07-09)
Place of birth	Cremona, Italy
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Striker
Youth career
1973–1978	Pizzighettone
1978–1980	Cremonese
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1980–1984	Cremonese	105	(23)
1984–1992	Sampdoria	223	(85)
1992–1996	Juventus	102	(38)
1996–1999	Chelsea	58	(21)
Total		488	(167)
National team
1985–1992	Italy	59	(16)
Teams managed
1998–2000	Chelsea
2001–2002	Watford
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Gianluca Vialli (born 9 July 1964 in Cremona) is an Italian football manager and former player. Since retiring, he has gone into management and punditry and is a commentator for Sky Sport Italia.

Vialli started his career at Cremonese in 1980 in his native Italy where he made 105 league appearances scoring 23 goals. His performances impressed Sampdoria who signed him in 1984. During which time he scored 85 league goals, won 3 Italian cups, the Serie A and the European Cup Winners Cup. Vialli transferred to Juventus for a World record £12.5 million in 1992. During this time he won the Italian Cup, the Serie A, Italian Supercup, UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Cup. In 1996 Vialli joined Chelsea and became Chelsea player manager the following season. In England he won the FA Cup, League Cup, UEFA Cup Winners Cup and UEFA Super Cup. He is one of nine footballers to have won the three main European club competitions and is the only player in European footballing history to have winner's and runner's up medals in all three main European club competitions. During his twenty years long career as a professional footballer he has scored 259 goals at club level, 16 goals with the national team, 11 goals with the under 21 national team for a total of 286 goals in more than 500 appearances.

Club career

Vialli's career started in 1980 when, signing for local club Cremonese. After scoring ten goals for the club in the 1983–84 season, he was transferred to Sampdoria.

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 their 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 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 largely expected to have a huge impact on the tournament and started Italy's first two games.^{[citation needed]} He set up a goal in Italy's opening game with Austria and in the following game he hit the 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 substituted in favour of Baggio during the match. In a recent interview with Irish radio station Newstalk Vialli claimed he had also been suffering with a chest infection in the early part of the tournament.^{[citation needed]}

Juventus

He moved to Juventus shortly after the European Cup final loss for a world record fee of £12.5million. Vialli won the UEFA Cup in his first season with Juventus. Coincidentally, he had his last international cap in 1992 also against Malta in a 1994 World Cup qualification match where he also 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 his time in Turin by captaining the side to a Champions League final win over Ajax Amsterdam in 1996.

Chelsea

Vialli joined Chelsea in the summer of 1996 for $1million a year (after rejecting an 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. However, 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, Vialli scored four goals in a league 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 under Gullit.

Managerial career

Chelsea

Gullit was sacked in February 1998 and 33-year-old Vialli was appointed player-manager. Chelsea were already in the semi-finals of the Coca Cola Cup and the quarter finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup, and went on to win both competitions under Vialli, as well as finishing 4th in the Premier League. In beating VfB Stuttgart at the Cup Winners' Cup final on 13 May 1998, 33 years and 308 days old Vialli became the youngest coach to ever win a UEFA competition. The record stood for thirteen years until 18 May 2011 when FC Porto's André Villas-Boas won the Europa League at the age of 33 years and 213 days.

The following season Chelsea won the European Super Cup by beating Real Madrid 1–0, and finished 3rd in the Premier League, just four points behind champions Manchester United in what was Chelsea's highest league finish since 1970. Vialli made his final competitive appearance for the club against Derby County at the end of that season (a game in which he scored), finishing his Chelsea career with 83 appearances and 40 goals.

The following season saw Chelsea reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League on their debut in the competition, the highlight of which was a 3–1 quarterfinal first leg victory over FC Barcelona, although they were eventually knocked out on aggregate following a 5-1 return leg loss at Camp Nou that needed extra time. Despite a disappointing 5th place finish in the Premier League, the campaign ended on a high note when Vialli guided Chelsea to a win over Aston Villa in the 2000 FA Cup final.

The 2000–01 season started brightly, with Chelsea beating Manchester United to win the FA Charity Shield, Vialli's fifth official trophy with the club in less than three years, making him the club's most successful manager at the time. But Vialli was sacked five games into the season after an indifferent start and having fallen out with several players, including Gianfranco Zola, Didier Deschamps and Dan Petrescu.

Watford

Vialli then 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 one year. Following this, he was drawn into a lengthy dispute with the club over the payment of the remainder of his contract.[1]

Other

In 2006, Vialli released The Italian Job: A Journey to the Heart of Two Great Footballing Cultures, co-written with his close friend and reputable football journalist, Gabriele Marcotti. Written over a period of two and a half years from November 2003 until early 2006, the book discusses the differences between English and Italian football. Vialli is donating the proceeds of the book to the "Fondazione Vialli e Mauro per la ricerca e lo sport", which is a charitable foundation he founded together with former player Massimo Mauro in order to raise funds for research into cancer and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Today Vialli works as a TV football commentator for Sky Italia. In 2007 he was linked with a move to the managers position at Queens Park Rangers, following the club takeover by Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone and the dismissal of John Gregory as manager, but ultimately declined any interest in the job.

Personal life

Vialli has been married to Cathryn White-Cooper since 26 August 2003 and has two children. He is a keen golfer and has played at the Dunhill links championship pro-am event.

Career statistics

Club performance			League		Cup		League Cup		Continental		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Italy			League		Coppa Italia		League Cup		Europe		Total
1980–81	Cremonese	Serie C1	2	0							2	0
1981–82		Serie B	31	5								5
1982–83			35	8							35	8
1983–84			37	10		2						12
1984–85	Sampdoria	Serie A	28	3		6						9
1985–86			28	6		2						8
1986–87			28	12		4						16
1987–88			30	10		3						13
1988–89			30	14		12	1	1		5		32
1989–90			22	10		2				7		19
1990–91			26	19		3				1		23
1991–92			31	11		3				7		21
1992–93	Juventus	Serie A	32	6	7	2			10	5	49	13
1993–94			10	4					2	0	12	4
1994–95			30	17	7	3			9	2	46	22
1995–96			30	11			1	1	7	2	38	14
England			League		FA Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
1996–97	Chelsea	Premier League	28	9	1	2					29	11
1997–98			21	11	1	2	1	0	8	6	31	19
1998–99			9	1	3	2	5	6	1	1	18	10
Total	Italy		410	146		42	2	2		29		219
	England		58	21	5	6	6	6	9	7	78	40
Career total			468	167		48	8	8		36		259

Italy national team
Year	Apps	Goals
1985	1	0
1986	10	0
1987	10	5
1988	11	5
1989	10	1
1990	3	0
1991	8	3
1992	6	2
Total	59	16

Club playing honours

Cremonese

• Serie C1: promotion 1880–81

Sampdoria

• Serie A: 1990–91
• Coppa Italia: 1985, 1988, 1989
• Supercoppa Italiana: 1991
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1990

Juventus F.C.

• Serie A: 1994–95
• Coppa Italia: 1995
• Supercoppa Italiana: 1995
• UEFA Champions League: 1996
• UEFA Cup: 1993

Chelsea F.C.

• FA Cup: 1997
• League Cup: 1998
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1998
• UEFA Super Cup: 1998

International playing honours

Italy national football team

• World Cup: 3rd place in 1990

Club managerial honours

Chelsea F.C.

• Football League Cup: 1998
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1998
• UEFA Super Cup: 1998
• FA Cup: 2000
• FA Charity Shield: 2000

Managerial stats

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Chelsea		12 February 1998	12 September 2000	143	76	29	38	53.15
Watford		1 June 2001	14 June 2002	52	20	21	11	38.46

See also

• List of players to have won the three main European club competitions

External links

• Gianluca Vialli management career stats at Soccerbase

Sporting positions
Preceded by Roberto Baggio	Juventus F.C. captains 1995–1996	Succeeded by Antonio Conte
Preceded by Bobby Robson	Cup Winners' Cup Winning Coach 1997–98	Succeeded by Sven-Göran Eriksson
Preceded by Jean-Pierre Papin	World football transfer record 1992–1992	Succeeded by Gianluigi Lentini