185: Salvatore Schillaci, Juventus, Calciatori Panini 1989/90

Richard Allinson brings us the story of a World Cup that made so many fall in love with football and many more come back to the game after the dark days of the 1980s through the medium of a man who flew so low under the radar before the tournament he didn’t even make it into the Panini album. It’s almost enough to make you bin off your job at Carphone Warehouse and do your best Pavarotti impression. Over to Rich.

Unbelievably, this summer marked 30 years since Italia ‘90. Which means it is 30 years since I hid behind the settee unable to watch as Chris Waddle pressed the launch button on an Adidas Etrusco Unico in Great Britain’s first known attempt at a moon landing. I was 7 years old at the time and it was utterly mesmerising and, because football wasn’t the global entity that it is today, I’d hardly heard of any of the players and that made them almost mythical. 

Take Benjamin Massing for example. With Argentina 1-0 down to rank outsiders Cameroon, future Dundee FC star Claudio Caniggia picked the ball up on the edge of his own box. At this point, I’ll hand over to Barry Davies “... and Argentina just cannot get themselves going. But here’s Caniggia. He’s hurdled past one, he’s got passed another, in the last minute of this game. In goes Massing, oooooh, he won’t get past that challenge and the referee will surely do something about that. It could well be a red card for Massing, the defender. An assault, and a brutal assault it was on Claudio Caniggia. The last minute of the game, with Cameroon still leading by a goal to nil... and a red card!” Three things to note here:

1. No one had ever heard of Massing. Nowadays, he would probably play for Bristol City but back then finding out about new players through watching the World Cup was exciting.

2. A “brutal assault” didn’t automatically warrant a red card in Barry Davies’ eyes. 

3. The referee showed Massing a red card, followed by a yellow. The challenge deserved both, but I really hope the ref saw it more as a second bookable offence. 

Massing’s actions will always have cult status, but Totò Schillaci’s performances at the 1990 World Cup will have a much more enduring legacy. He entered the tournament as a relative unknown, having only previously earned one cap for his national side. Indeed, he started the first game against Austria on the substitutes bench before coming on to score the winner - his first goal in international football. Clearly not wanting Totò to get too big for his boots, Italy boss Azeglio Vicini demoted him back to sub again for the group game against the USA. However, Schillaci was then given a starting place against Czechoslovakia in the next match where both he and his strike partner Roberto Baggio found the net in a 2-0 win. He then carried on this rich vein of form by scoring against Uruguay and the Republic of Ireland as the Azzurri marched forward to the semi-finals on home soil. 

Things started well in this game for Italy’s balding hero as he banged in his fifth goal of the tournament against Benjamin Massing’s previous victims, Argentina. Much like the Chris Waddle Space Programme semi-final, the match went to penalties after a 1-1 draw. It was here that Schillaci basically let himself, his family and his country down by refusing to take a penalty in the shoot out, claiming that he was injured. Except he possibly didn’t. Another version of events was that Vicini randomly didn’t allow his top scorer to step forward. Either way, it was a bizarre decision. Italy lost the shoot out and Argentina went on to lose 1-0 to West Germany in what was, quite frankly, a dull final. 

The World Cup third/fourth play-off is largely the most pointless thing on planet Earth and Peter Shilton’s mind was clearly elsewhere when he decided to stand and stare at the ball rather than pick it up as Italy nicked it off him and took the lead through Roberto Baggio. England equalised with a David Platt header but Schillaci had one last bit of magic left in him as he went on to score his sixth goal of the tournament and claim the golden boot, ironically with a penalty. 

Italia ‘90 really was a moment in time, both for millions of 7 year olds and for Salvatore Schillaci. He went from relative nobody to global superstar and back again, following almost the same trajectory as a Chris Waddle penalty. In total, he played 16 games for the Azzurri scoring seven goals; his only non-World Cup goal coming against Norway in a Euro ‘92 qualifying game. So Schillaci might not have been Italy’s greatest ever centre forward. Similarly, Italia ‘90 has been largely panned as a footballing spectacle. But y’know what? I don’t care. Nessun Dorma still brings me out in goose bumps; I still wear a t-shirt emblazoned with Ciao the official tournament mascot; and I still think we’d have won if Dave Beasant had been in goal.