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The year 1964 was a great year for football in Italy. Helenio Herrera’s Inter beat Real Madrid in the European Cup final; Roma lifted Coppa Italia after a dramatic rerun against Turin; Bologna won its seventh scudetto; and, in two very different parts of the country, a pair of the best players Italy has ever produced was born.
The first came Gianluca Vialli. Born in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, young Luca grew up in luxury and made his home in the 60-room Castello di Belgioioso. About five months later, and 400 kilometers to the south, Roberto Mancini was born into a devout Catholic family in the ancient city of Jesi.
Their upbringings varied considerably, but they both had a love of football which began to develop very early on. From the age of nine, Vialli started making the 45-minute journey between his home and the local amateur team AS Pizzighettone. In the south, Mancini was also taking his first steps in the match. At just six years old, he had started playing and playing for the local team Aurora Jesi.
While Vialli may have been a late bloomer of sorts, Mancini’s potential to reach the top has never been in doubt. Despite interest from some of the giants of Italian football, including Milan, he signed for Bologna at the age of 13. Around the same time, Vialli made the most unfavorable transfer from his young amateur squad to Cremonese, then a Serie C side. Vialli made their first Serie C appearance at just 16 and Mancini followed shortly after. soon after. On September 13, 1981, three months before his 17th birthday, he played for the first time in Serie A.
A remarkable season followed as the youngster scored nine times in 30 appearances, marking him as one of Italian football’s top prospects. With the big clubs spinning, Sampdoria finally landed his signing. Funded by ambitious and wealthy Paolo Mantovani, the club brought in a litany of foreign talent. Trevor Francis and Liam Brady joined the team the same summer as Mancini, with Graeme Souness arriving two years later.
Despite the interest in the club’s new stars, it was one of the more low-key arrivals that ultimately made Samp’s history. After four years at the top of the line at Cremonese, in which the club moved from Serie C to the elite, Vialli has drawn contenders from all over Italy, especially after the 19-year-old finished better. Cremonese scorer in the year of his victory. promotion to Serie A.
Both Mancini and Vialli had already started to move away from club football in the Italian Under-21 setup, with Mancini repeatedly appealing to Vialli and selling the idea of joining him at Sampdoria. It worked. Despite the interest of a number of big clubs, Vialli chose to join Mancini and the very ambitious Sampdoria project in 1984.
In their first season in a regular partnership, Sampdoria finished fourth in the championship and won Coppa Italia for the first time in their history. The 20-year-old scored both goals in the return leg of the final against a Milan defense set up by the great Franco Baresi.
The duo really began to flourish when the jovial Vujadin Boskov took over as manager at the start of the 1986-87 season. The departures of Souness and Francis at the end of the previous season have left Mancini and Vialli as the undisputed focal points of the team. With the pair now referred to as “goal twins” up front, Samp had a remarkable run. Back-to-back wins in Coppa Italia in 1988 and 1989 were followed by Cup Winners’ Cup glory in 1990. There was more to come a year later as Samp won his very first scudetto in 1990-91.
Mancini had by then transcended his role and was now the undisputed leader of the team on the pitch (and anything but an assistant manager off it). Vialli, as he always has, scored the goals, ending the season as the league’s top scorer – a magnificent achievement given his troubles for Italy at Italia 90. They had hoisted Sampdoria to the top. of Italian football, winning every accolade possible along the way – and their scudetto triumph meant that for the first time, Sampdoria would take part in the European Cup.
They made it to the final at Wembley, losing to Barcelona in overtime thanks to a free kick from Ronald Koeman in the 112th minute. It was the last game Mancini and Vialli played together at Sampdoria. Just two months after that crushing defeat, Juventus opened their checkbook to sign Vialli and the era of the goal twins was over.
Although they are on different paths, the two have remained close. Almost 30 years later, they have reunited. Mancini, then manager of Italy, brought his old friend Vialli to the prestigious post of chief delegate of the team. With the appointment coming at a time when Vialli was publicly battling cancer, it was a move that deeply moved the forward. “Working with Roberto and the staff is emotional. He said we are getting old, but for me, working here together will keep us all young.
Earlier this year, Vialli confirmed he was given the green light for cancer after facing the disease for 17 months. And the couple left for the Euro together, continuing a journey that began almost 40 years ago. “We have a relationship that goes far beyond friendship,” Mancini said of Vialli. “He’s almost like a brother to me. And Vialli is nonetheless laudatory towards Mancini, saying: “Roberto has been my hero since I was 14 years old.
Mancini and Vialli did as much as anyone to shape Italian football in the 1980s and 1990s. Now they hope their special relationship can be the catalyst to restore the national team to its former glory. Whatever happens at Wembley on Sunday night, the story of their friendship and almost telepathic understanding on the pitch has given us all something to celebrate.
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