{"id":296193,"date":"2023-10-19T03:09:07","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T03:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/?p=296193"},"modified":"2023-10-19T03:09:07","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T03:09:07","slug":"wembley-will-feel-sadness-without-gianluca-vialli-says-paul-elliott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/soccer\/wembley-will-feel-sadness-without-gianluca-vialli-says-paul-elliott\/","title":{"rendered":"Wembley will feel sadness without Gianluca Vialli, says Paul Elliott"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>England vs Italy will see a &#8216;tinge of sadness&#8217; without Gianluca Vialli, says Paul Elliott as he reflects on the football legend who went down in Wembley folklore<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Gianluca Vialli enjoyed highs at Wembley in his playing and coaching career<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Paul Elliott, who played in Serie A, speaks about the striker&#8217;s legacy<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Vialli died aged 58 in January\u00a0to much devastation after a battle with cancer<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport&#8217;s podcast &#8216;It&#8217;s All Kicking Off!&#8217;\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Paul Elliott will arrive at Wembley tonight with sadness in his heart.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I first met Gianluca Vialli in Italy, when I played in Serie A with Pisa,\u2019 recalled Elliott, who became the first black British defender to play in Italy\u2019s top-flight.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He was a class act then. We had some good battles on the pitch in Italy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I then met him again a few years later at Chelsea, he was with Roberto Mancini at the time.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He was such a warm individual. He dressed well, spoke great English &#8211; he was student of human relations.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/17\/16\/76666077-0-image-a-5_1697557077987.jpg\" height=\"466\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>England vs Italy at Wembley will not be the same without Gianluca Vialli, who had many iconic moments at the ground with Chelsea and his country\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/17\/16\/76665769-0-image-a-2_1697556724068.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Paul Elliott, who played in Serie A, says there will be a &#8216;tinge of sadness&#8217; without Vialli<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018A great guy. Humble and very emotionally intelligent, an absolute gentleman.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We\u2019re all looking forward the game against Italy, but there will be a tinge of sadness because Gianluca can\u2019t be with us.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He\u2019d have been in his element tonight. He loved Italy, but he loved London &#8211; he felt so at home here that he relocated. He\u2019d have relished tonight &#8211; we will miss him.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Vialli\u2019s death in January following a battle against pancreatic cancer shook football to its core.<\/p>\n<p>Elliott\u2019s recollections of Vialli the man are universally held &#8211; regardless of allegiances and loyalties, you\u2019d be hard-pushed to find anyone with a negative word to say about the Italian.<\/p>\n<p>Yet on the pitch he was fiercely competitive &#8211; and Elliott was on the receiving end of his brilliant talents.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/17\/16\/76665827-0-image-a-3_1697556833886.jpg\" height=\"470\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Vialli, a legendary forward, passed away aged 58 in January this year after a battle with cancer\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/17\/16\/76665635-0-image-a-4_1697556924950.jpg\" height=\"524\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>He won the FA Cup with Chelsea in 2000 as a manager, three years after winning it as a player<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Unquestionably, a world class striker. It was the relationship and partnership with Mancini when they were at Sampdoria,\u2019 said Elliott.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018In my opinion there were three great partnerships in the world football at the time &#8211; Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit at AC Milan; [Diego] Maradona and Careca at Napoli and Mancini and Vialli at Sampdoria.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Mancini and Vialli were as good as anything in the world. Technically Vialli was so good. Good touch, good technique and he could link the play.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018But for me it was his willingness to run, even with all that natural ability.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Gianluca was born into wealth and could have run the family business &#8211; but he wanted to play football. That\u2019s a measure of the man\u2019s professionalism.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Vialli will forever be intertwined in Wembley folklore. In 1997 he came on as a substitute in Chelsea\u2019s 2-0 FA Cup final win over Middlesbrough.<\/p>\n<p>Three years later, he won the tournament again &#8211; this time as a manager &#8211; as Chelsea beat Aston Villa in 2000.<\/p>\n<p>And then, of course, came Euro 2020; Vialli, part of then head coach Mancini\u2019s backroom team, helped Italy to European Championship glory with a penalty shootout win over England in the final.<\/p>\n<p>That night at Wembley provided a rare bright spot for Italian football during a largely disappointing spell which has seen the national team fail to qualify for the previous two World Cups.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/17\/16\/76665617-0-image-a-7_1697557107594.jpg\" height=\"465\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>He was delegation chief in 2021 when Roberto Mancini&#8217;s Italy beat England on penalties to win the European Championships at Wembley\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/17\/16\/76666171-0-image-a-8_1697557221032.jpg\" height=\"480\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>While Serie A has arguably declined since Vialli&#8217;s day, it is a popular destination to get game time for English players such as Fikayo Tomori\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Italian football\u2019s fall from grace is a far cry from when Elliott joined Pisa in 1987.<\/p>\n<p>Serie A was widely viewed as the world\u2019s best division during and the national team boasted icons like Franco Baresi, Carlo Ancelotti, Paolo Maldini and &#8211; of course &#8211; Vialli.<\/p>\n<p>A lack of investment and the emergence of the Premier League are viewed as two of the key factors behind Italian football\u2019s perceived demise.<\/p>\n<p>But Elliott is adamant Serie A still has plenty to offer, insisting England players Fikayo Tomori, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tammy Abraham will one day return as better all-round players.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018When I played there it was deemed as the best league in the world but it has lost its way,\u2019 said Elliott, who act as an advisor to the Football Association.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018There\u2019s been societal challenges in Italy. There&#8217;s no secret there\u2019s been challenges with racism in Italy. I was racially abused in Italy but it was the same in the UK for black players in the 80s-90s &#8211; and when I went to Scotland with Celtic.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It\u2019s one of the biggest challenges of their society &#8211; but it has never stopped clubs wanting to recruit players of all races from all over the world. The challenges come from a minority.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018But a lot of English players have been attracted to Italy for game time which is a really massive plus.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018They will improve in Italy. You can see the difference in their games &#8211; particularly Abraham and Tomori.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018My game improved so much in Italy. Tactically, being in possession, my concentration. That\u2019s where the biggest plus will be for those boys.\u2019<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off\u00a0is an exciting podcast from Mail Sport that brings a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube , Apple Music and Spotify<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12641041\/England-vs-Italy-tinge-sadness-without-Gianluca-Vialli-says-Paul-Elliott-reflects-football-legend-went-Wembley-folklore.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>England vs Italy will see a &#8216;tinge of sadness&#8217; without Gianluca Vialli, says Paul Elliott as he reflects on the <span class=\"more-text\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Wembley will feel sadness without Gianluca Vialli, says Paul Elliott - Sportstons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/soccer\/wembley-will-feel-sadness-without-gianluca-vialli-says-paul-elliott\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wembley will feel sadness without Gianluca Vialli, says Paul Elliott - Sportstons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"England vs Italy will see a &#8216;tinge of sadness&#8217; 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