[Football] Toto Schillaci RIP

Han Solo said:

Sad to hear about it.
Lots of ex-Juve players from the 90s aren't well and will pass away early, like Vialli and Schillaci. Those old Juve doctors did some Mengele bullshit. Ex-Juve players still don't know exactly what was injected into them on a very regular basis.

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The drug scandal that blackens the name of Juve's team of the Nineties

Club doctor sentenced to jail as doping controversy intensifies

www.independent.co.uk

Theatre of Trees said:

Italia 90 really was an oddity. Football wise it was one of the most turgid competitions in history, I think it still holds the record for the lowest average goals scored across all World Cups - a lot of rules were changed after, most notably the back pass rule to keepers. Other than West Germany, all other teams flattered to deceive: the Italians were heavily weighed down with expectation; the 1988 Euro winners, Holland, were out of sorts and too busy arguing with each other; Brazil's magnificent 1980s team had been dismantled and replaced by possibly the worst squad in their history; Argentina had a team of Maradona and 10 cloggers who kicked their way to the final; England had finished bottom of their Euro 88 group without a point and Robson had decided prior to the tournament he had had enough - expectations were low and continued downwards after their first match with Ireland which was a dire game (I think one Italian newspaper headline for that was 'No Football Please We're British")

Yet despite all this Italia 90 was possibly the most dramatic and interesting tournament in my lifetime, from the moment that Cameroon defender's crunching tackle launched Claudio Caniggia into space, during the opening game. Schillaci was one of them, suddenly becoming the saviour of the Italy team in virtually every match they played. Many matches seemed to have something going on: goalkeepers who dribbled halfway up the pitch; obscure Central American countries beating hapless Scots; other top players who had flashes of brilliance in one game, then disappeared in the next (Dragan Stojkovic v Spain); Geriatric African forwards lured out of retirement to terrorise defences and dance round corner flags; Germany v Holland spitting competition; Carlos Valderrama's hair.

Add to the mix, the only England World Cup song to ever bother with (I still have my T-Shirt somewhere) - still trying to work out which blazer at the FA green lighted this - I'm assuming after the previous abomination involving Stock Aitken and Waterman, they devolved it to the work experience kid. Barnes rapping, drug references and cheeky Carry On innuendo equals the finest 4 minutes of music about football you will ever come across.


Add to that was the BBC got it completely right with their theme - it was particularly effective when playing out on the end credits over pictures of dramatic moments from the match. Pavarotti's version is the only one to bother with.


I think these songs were at one point numbers 1 and 2 in the UK chart during the tournament.

In summary - terrible football, cracking drama

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Han Solo said:

Sad to hear about it.
Lots of ex-Juve players from the 90s aren't well and will pass away early, like Vialli and Schillaci. Those old Juve doctors did some Mengele bullshit. Ex-Juve players still don't know exactly what was injected into them on a very regular basis.

Click to expand...