Great sadness for Italy’s superstar Gianluca Vialli
Vialli († 58) once wore an Aarau shirt and was supposed to come to GC
Italy mourns ex-superstar Gianluca Vialli. Why he once wore an Aarau shirt – and how the enterprising player agent Giacomo Petralito wanted to bring him to GC.
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Crazy story: The late Italian superstar Gianluca Vialli (right) in the Aarau shirt next to player agent Giacomo Petralito and his sons.
Andreas BoniDeputy Editor-in-Chief Blick Sport
Italy is crying for a legend: Gianluca Vialli died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 58. At the EM 2021 he was still able to celebrate the title as Italy’s team coordinator.
As a player he was one of the best Italian forwards of all time, playing Cremonese, Sampdoria, Juventus and Chelsea and winning the Champions League, Uefa Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup. He scored 16 goals in 59 games for Italy.
And he almost ended his career in Switzerland. But first things first.
“He wanted to go to GC”
At the end of the 1980s, Giacomo Petralito, who would later become a notorious advisor, organized the training camp in Morschach in the canton of Schwyz for Sampdoria Genoa. There he met Gianluca Vialli and Roberto Mancini, two top strikers of their generation. “They were like brothers,” says Petralito. “Their relationship remained so close until the end: when Mancini became Italy’s national coach, he took Vialli as team coordinator.”
Petralito continues: “The two were fascinated by Switzerland. And told me in the nineties that they would like to end their careers at GC together.” Mancini played for Sampdoria in the mid-1990s, Vialli won the Champions League with Juventus in 1996 and then wants to switch at the age of 32.
“That’s why it burst”
Petralito calls GC Manager Erich Vogel beforehand: “But I was turned away by the secretary, Mrs. Huber.” When it is his turn, Vogel asks him if he is the manager of the two. “I spontaneously said yes, although this job wasn’t that common at the time,” says Petralito. Vogel then comes to Petralito’s house that same day to push the deal forward. It was Petralito’s start at the time because he noticed that footballers liked to have others call for them.
The problem then is: Chelsea offer Vialli a lot more money at the same time. The deal with the then Champions League club GC bursts. “If Chelsea hadn’t come up with this offer, they would both have played for GC,” Petralito is convinced.
This is how the photo in the Aarau shirt came about
Petralito sends another old memory. It shows him with his sons and Vialli – in FC Aarau jersey… Petralito says: “The day before this photo, Aarau tested against Sampdoria. Roger Wehrli and he swapped jerseys after the game.”
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