From poor Sicily to the rich Italian north and from the summer of dreams to the nightmare of disgrace, the form of the 1990 World Cup… found a beam…
The beautiful in life, they say, has to do with the unpredictable. With the fact that you can not be sure how things will turn out, you can not take for granted anything. This, of course, goes against, if we want to have such a discussion and philosophical quests, with the stress of the phrase "you do not know what dawns on you", but we do not want.
Because our purpose is not to solve the mysteries of the world, but to "read" the path of a football player who came close to the top of the world, a man who went to the other side of the world, a figure who remained in the memory of the world because of those Italian notte magiche. Even if, in the end, nothing was left in his pocket…
30 years ago at such a time, Konstantinos Mitsotakis nominated Konstantinos Karamanlis for President of the Republic, Germany was learning to live without the wall of shame, Italy was preparing for the World Cup and Salvatore Scilacci, our protagonist, was living it. Or so he thought at the time, because he had better.
Arriving relatively late in Serie B, the Italian striker finally made the leap of his life in the summer of 1989, when at the age of 25 he signed for Juventus. For most Sicilians, based on their fan preferences, it is a dream come true. Probably the same goes for Skilacci, who, having been born into a poor family in Palermo, saw in football the opportunity for fame.
Athletic, social and mainly economic. "The first time I saw Gianni Anielli up close, I realized where I had come from", was his attack and from there on, he made sure with his appearances that he won the right to dream. With 15 goals in his first season in Turin he was the top scorer for Juve, who won the Coppa Italia and the UEFA Cup.
Enough to win a place in the Italian national team for the… home World Cup, although with Azzurri he had only two appearances until then. He went, he knew that he was starting as the last attacking choice of Angelio Vicini, but finally the stars went straight and everything conspired so that Skilacci was finally found as a key player. Was that the goal with Czechoslovakia in the Italian premiere? Was it accidental? It was written;
It is important that for "Toto" those that would follow would be the four craziest weeks he could imagine when as a child he played ball in the streets of Palermo, he could not get out of school and finally went to the hated Messina to try his luck on the ball.
In these four weeks, with 6 goals in 7 matches, Scilacci became the one who led Italy to glory as the "hero" of an entire country, he became his top scorer World Cup, became the best player of the tournament in front of Diego Maradona or Lothar Matheus, finally became a footballer who saw that life is really unpredictable and it is nice, because from the hunger of Sicily, he came to live a present and to see in front of him a future "full".
He saw that everything was laid out properly
Playing in one of the best teams in Europe, having launched his status as a center forward and with the Italian league being the best in the world then, that is, the most expensive, "Toto" saw everything being laid out properly. Until he realized that life is indeed unpredictable… And he would understand that in a bad way. His love affair with his wife, Rita Bonacorso, is well known.
As it was known from one point onwards, however, that she was in a relationship with Gianluigi Ledini, the rising star of her fellow citizen Turin. For Salvatore, the "hit" was big, as the headlines changed their style. They did not accuse him of anything. It is simply that Scilacci no longer posed in the newspapers or on the channels as the man leading Italy to glory, but as the deceived star.
For a Sicilian who once "went crazy" when his coach, Giovanni Trapattoni, told him that "you even killed Falcone" (commenting on the murder of the Italian judge by the Mafia), for a man who did not hesitate to throw a spoon at his teammate - Roberto Baggio due to nerves, the problem was big. Not necessarily with his wife or Lentini, but with his conscience, his dignity, his shame. And it was the shame that sent him not just away from Juventus, after he went to Inter, but away from Italy, deciding to accept the proposal of Jubilo Iwata in 1994.
He could not stand the mockery
The choice, in theory, was made for the money, but it was not so. He has, after all, admitted that he wanted to leave Italy as far as possible, unable to manage the fact that in every stadium in the country, those who a few summers ago wore his jersey, said his name 1.000 times on day and had placed their hopes on him to become Campioni del mondo again, they were now the ones who mocked him for his personalities.
It was the moment when Scilacci would realize once again that life is unpredictable and would send him to the other side of the world. But it is also fair, if we want to comment on this issue, since it is a story that had no winners but only losers. Ledini, who would become the most expensive transfer ever in 1992 by signing in Milan, saw his career ruined in 1993 in a serious car accident, while Rita saw the Italian state take her villa due to debts afterwards. from a loan and realized that the doors were not open for her, so she ended up sleeping in a caravan, which is her only asset. Even if it is not hers…
From the summer of 1989 when he signed for Juventus, until the summer of 1994 when he left for Japan, with intermediate stops at the 1990 World Cup and the transfer to Inter in 1992, Salvatore Scilacci smiled dreaming of a career with titles and money. he believed and cried seeing that he lives in a summer what every child with a ball on his feet imagines, he was afraid of the world and his opinion about it, he "crumbled" deciding to leave everything behind, without holding anything, not even titles no money, for him.
He saw, he understood in a few words, that the beautiful in life has to do with the unpredictable. And if we want, now that we have reached the end, to do philosophical quests, we will say that this probably makes him rich. Without money…