PETER JONES RECALLS WHEN AN UNHERALDED STRIKER CAUGHT THE WORLD'S ATTENTION...
There's no doubt about who the surprise star of the 1990 World Cup was - Salvatore 'Toto' Schillaci. He started the competition as a substitute but came off the bench to score in the first game and didn’t look back.
Schillaci eventually finished Top Goalscorer and Player of the Tournament ahead of the likes of Lothar Matthäus and Diego Maradona.
He became known as the saviour of the nation for getting his Italian side to a third-place finish in their World Cup and then later came second in the Ballon d'Or that year.
The move away from Juventus to Inter and then an Asian adventure in the J. League followed the tournament. Toto Schilaci’s career from Messina to retirement was one of great interest, especially 31 days in the summer of 1990.
Humble footballing beginnings at Amat Palermo mirrored his family life as he earned £1.50 a goal and soon the attention of Serie C2 side Messina.
He went on to spend seven years with the Sicilian side from 1982-89, playing through two promotions and scoring 61 times in 219 games.
Despite this decent return, Schillaci was not a star in the lower Italian divisions until 1989. This coincided with the arrival of Zdeněk Zeman as manager.
Schillaci shone, scoring 23 in 35 games. The end of the season saw Zeman being seized by Serie A side Foggia and Schillaci followed with a bigger step up to Juventus in exchange for £3 million.
Dino Zoff brought him in for the 1989-90 season, which proved to be the biggest of his career.
Giovanni Trapattoni had dominated 1980s Italian football with Juventus and Zoff was tasked with repeating this success.
Schillaci's first season was a triumph. He scored 15 in 30 games, winning the UEFA Cup and Coppa Italia, leaving him a great position for a summer call-up.
Very much the 22nd of a 22-man squad, Azeglio Vicini chose to have extra attacking cover rather than elsewhere. Schillaci was sixth choice behind Roberto Baggio, Andrea Carnevale, Roberto Mancini, Aldo Serena and Gianluca Vialli. He had only made one appearance for his national team, less than any of his attacking teammates.
At the time of his call-up, he knew opportunities for a game would only come off the five-men bench, relying on injuries and suspensions just to get that far.
However, efforts in pre-tournament training had impressed Vicini and he pipped Mancini and Serena to a substation place for the tournament opener against Austria.
Italy were supposed to run away with the game, as much as they were dominating they were not finishing chances.
In search of a goal, Baggio was overlooked and Schillaci entered the fray with 15 minutes left, replacing Carnevale.
Before entering the field, fellow sub and Juventus teammate Stefano Tacconi encouraged him to go on and score a header, something he had not done all season.
Three minutes after coming on, Vialli sent a cross in and Toto rose to score the winner in Italy’s first game of their World Cup.
This was a huge goal but not enough for a starting place in the next game. He came off the bench but failed to score in another narrow 1-0 victory over the United States.
Vicini stayed loyal to Carnevale and Vialli in the first two games, but they failed to spark. It led to a double change for the final group game. Baggio and Schillaci were given the chance and they delivered, both scoring in a 2-0 victory against Czechoslovakia.
Three games, three wins and no goals conceded but this was the best performance of the tournament so far. Vicini had his line-up sorted and was ready for the knockouts.
Beyond his wildest dreams, not only had Schillaci played in all three games, he was now the first choice forward with Baggio in a winning team on home soil.
Uruguay were the Round of 16 opponents and they provided Toto another chance to impress. Following a big kick from keeper Walter Zenga, the ball eventually fell to Schillaci and he turned on the edge of the box to score with a powerful finish.
Italy won 2-0 and went on to face Ireland in the quarter-finals. Schillaci had rocketed himself from squad player, to the bench, to super-sub, to first-team and now was looking he could become even more important to his team and nation.
The Irish were proving to be unlikely heroes, but Italy were out to spoil their party.
It now became less a matter of if rather than when with Toto’s scoring prowess.
After keeper Packie Bonner fumbled a shot, he scored again - the only goal of the game.
Four in five games propelled him to national hero status and he was the key part of an unbeaten side who had yet to concede a goal as they entered the semi-finals. Maradona’s Argentina awaited them in Italy’s first game away from the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
It all started perfectly as Schillaci yet again delivered on the biggest stage. Italy produced a terrific team move were Vialli’s effort was saved, the main man followed in culminating in the now all too familiar sight of Schillaci running away in triumph.
His fifth goal made his joint leading scorer, Italy entered the break one-up.
But Italian celebrations were halted midway through the second half as they conceded their first goal of the tournament. Claudio Caniggia finished a Maradona orchestrated move.
In extra-time, Argentina were cut to 10 men following a second yellow for Ricardo Giusti. However, Italy couldn't make breakthrough and it went to penalties.
The first six were converted. Roberto Donadoni saw his effort saved and Maradona converted the next penalty to put the pressure on Italy.
Aldo Serena was also halted by keeper Sergio Goycochea and, suddenly, Italian dreams of World Cup glory laid in ruins.
Schillaci blamed a sore leg and being poor at penalties on him not being involved in the shoot-out.
Despite many questionings why the top goalscorer had not taken a penalty, Toto had lifted himself from £1.50-a-goal striker to scoring priceless goals for his nation in just eight years.
Although Italy's hopes of winning the tournament were over, the often anti-climatic third place match provided Schillaci the opportunity to make history as he stood level on goals with Czechoslovakia’s Tomáš Skuhravý. Rather ironically for Italy, and their English opponents, his goal came from the penalty spot.
Italy won 2-1 but this did not help to heal the wounds of the semi-final elimination.
It had proved a task too big for a relative unknown to win the World Cup for his country on home soil - Schillaci had done all but that for his team.
His monumental feats provided him with a slot in the Team of the Tournament, the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball as well as a runner-up place behind Lothar Matthäus at the 1990 Ballon d’Or.
This would not make up for the lack of a winner’s medal but meant that come the end of the tournament, Schillaci’s stock was altissimo.
His six-goal tally at Italia '90 proved to be his greatest hour. The next two seasons at Juventus brought five and then six goals, then a subsequent drop down the table to Internazionale for the 1992-93 season.
Schillaci again failed to resurrect his World Cup form as his two seasons at the San Siro provided seven and then six goals.
Argentina’s penalty win not only ended Italian hopes of a World Cup, they also had a big impact on Schillaci, too.
The weight of international hero status proved too heavy for Toto as he left the country to become the first Italian to play in the J. League.
It was not only his club form that suffered as Schillaci’s international career finished with just one more goal and eight more games.
Before retiring in 1999, he won the league with Júbilo Iwata where he scored 56 in 78 games. The full spiral from footballing obscurity to national hero and back was complete and he limped out of the game, aged 35.
Italia '90 proved to be the greatest 31 days of Schillaci’s career.
His decent season in a successful Juventus side provided him the opportunity to impress.
He delivered for Vicini and the whole nation on the biggest stage imaginable and made himself an instant icon.
Whether the weight of this did influence his performance, or whether it was just that he had the biggest purple patch of his career for a short and significant period, he never hit the same heights again.
It was a shame he didn't reach the final, or even go on to win it with the Azzurri, but his deeds will never be forgotten.
He deserved all the praise that came his way after working his way up from the bottom rungs of the ladder.
And for that brief spell in the summer of 1990, he must have felt he was on top of the world.
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