Italia 90 top scorer Salvatore Schillaci was admitted to the hospital over the weekend, raising concerns across the soccer world. Schillaci netted six goals to become one of the tournament’s breakout stars. Schillaci, who is nicknamed ‘Totò,’ had been diagnosed with colon cancer in 2022.



The former Italian soccer player’s family provided a positive <a href="https://www.gazzetta.it/Calcio/Serie-A/08-09-2024/schillaci-il-mondo-del-calcio-e-in-ansia.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">brief statement</a> on the Italian’s current condition.



“Given the countless calls from the media and the nasty rumors circulating, we clarify that our beloved Totò is in stable condition and is continuously checked by an expert team of doctors night and day. Come on, Totò.”



<h2>Schillaci’s rise to World Cup glory</h2>



Italia 90 featured the tears of Paul Gascoigne against West Germany. Italians remember the tournament for Schillaci’s rise from relative obscurity to national heroism. To this day, it remains one of the romantic narratives of the 1990 World Cup.



The striker was part of a 22-man World Cup squad which featured a top-heavy attack. Roberto Baggio, Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Mancini, Andrea Carnevale and Aldo Serena were all ahead of Schillaci in the international pecking order. Furthermore, soccer regulations in the 1990s only allowed five substitutes.



In Serie A, Schillaci’s Juventus side was flailing behind the likes of Napoli, Milan and Internazionale. The Old Lady had finished fourth in the league. However, only Marco Van Basten (19), Roberto Baggio (17) and Diego Maradona (16) had scored more goals than Schillaci in the 1989/90 season. At 25 years old, Schillaci was thriving at the club level. He had yet to make a significant impact on the international stage.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><figure class="image"><img loading="lazy" width="1200" height="675" src="https://ds-images.bolavip.com/news/image?src=https://images.worldsoccertalk.com/webp/full/WST_20240909_WST_527877_Scillachi-Italia-90-1200x675_a1e22ce3.webp&amp;width=1200&amp;height=675" alt="" class="wp-image-527918" srcset="https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/09/Scillachi-Italia-90-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/09/Scillachi-Italia-90-300x169.jpg 300w, https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/09/Scillachi-Italia-90-768x432.jpg 768w, https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/09/Scillachi-Italia-90-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/09/Scillachi-Italia-90.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px"></figure></figure>



The Italian forward had only played once for the national team before Italia 90. This was in a 1-0 friendly win against Switzerland. He had impressed Italy manager Azeglio Vicini in the lead-up to the tournament.



In the opening World Cup game against Austria, Toto’s ascent to heroism began. Vicini opted to bring on Schillaci for Carnevale, overlooking Roberto Baggio in the process. His header won the opening game for the Azzurri. It had set a confident tone for Italy in their forthcoming fixtures, with Schillaci scoring against Czechoslovakia, Uruguay and the Republic of Ireland.



<h2>Salvatore Schillaci was the hero of Italia 90</h2>



By the time Italy faced Argentina in the semi-final, they had not conceded a single goal in the tournament. Claudio Caniggia’s header canceled out Totò’s early goal against the defending champions. The match would go the distance to a penalty shootout. 



Italy and Schillaci’s fairy-tale ride ended on that disappointing night. He later admitted that he did not take part in the penalty shootout due to muscular discomfort. <a href="https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/salvatore-schillaci-italia-90-when-italy-went-out-i-spent-two-hours-smoking-and-crying" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Speaking to FourFourTwo</a> in 2014, Schillaci said:



“I had a muscular injury to my leg and was tired, so I thought I’d leave it to someone in better condition than me, someone better at taking penalties. I’m not a great penalty taker.”



For Totò, the burden of being a national hero in the summer of 1990 would prove too much in consequent years. He would only represent Italy 16 times in his career, only playing a further 8 times after that World Cup. Even at the domestic level, he failed to reach double digits in his goal tally for the next two seasons in Italy.



A move to Inter Milan followed. However, he failed to meet the level of expectations there between 1992 and 1994. As a result, the forward moved to Japanese side Jubilo Iwata. In doing so, he was the first Italian soccer player to move to Japan.



Schillaci retired in 1999, returning to his native Palermo.



Those four weeks in 1990 defined a career for Salvadore Schillaci. Those expectations that Italian fans pinned a nation’s hopes on for those few weeks proved too much to handle, but the beloved legacy that he left behind is timeless.



PHOTOS: IMAGO

Health concerns rise for Italia 90 hero Salvatore Schillaci

Italia '90 top scorer Salvatore Schillaci was admitted to the hospital over the weekend, raising concerns across the soccer world.

Health concerns rise for Italia 90 hero Salvatore Schillaci - World Soccer Talk

At the very start of the 1990s, something quite unusual, almost shocking, had happened. The United States had qualified for the FIFA World Cup. To celebrate and create interest for the USA at the World Cup, something not unusual for the time was created: a hip-hop music video.



The United States had already been awarded the hosting rights for the 1994 World Cup, where they’d automatically qualify. But they earned the right to play at Italia ’90 on the field – the first time since 1950 that the USA would compete at the tournament.



The USMNT’s 1990 squad featured many names well-known to American fans now. Tony Meola, John Harkes, Tab Ramos, Eric Wynalda, Peter Vermes, Marcelo Balboa, Kasey Keller, and Paul Caligiuri were among those on the roster. When they defeated Trinidad &amp; Tobago in their final qualifying game, it secured them a spot in Italy and ushered in the modern era of respectability for the USMNT. 



After scoring big goals and making saves on the field, the team laid down some rhymes on a hype track initially imagined by forward Paul Caligiuri and re-worked by artists Def Jef and DJ Eric Vaughn.



<h2>Dripping with 90s nostalgia</h2>



Both the song itself and the video are 100% products of their era. The synthesized beat and rap style immediately take you back to the early 90s.



Footage of the – shirtless – team dancing and kicking around on the beach is interspersed with highlights from games and kids playing soccer.



The back half of the video borrows a trope from a few years earlier – the celebrity recording session a la “<a href="https://youtu.be/bmj7KlIut1w?si=Z1_x5eXUL3giS3Z1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Do They Know It’s Christmas</a>” and “We Are The World.” Famous stars of the time – such as NFL players Marcus Allen and O.J. Simpson (who’d of course become infamous just a few years later) and one of the American Gladiators – joined USMNT members on the mic for the chorus. 



You can watch the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o73qnXFP7e8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">entire video on YouTube</a> or check it out below:



<h2>USA World Cup team 1990 song &amp; video</h2>



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<div class="ck-youtube"><iframe loading="lazy" title="Def Jef &amp; DJ Eric Vaughn with the 1990 USA World Cup Soccer Team - Victory (MONO AUDIO)" width="500" height="375" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o73qnXFP7e8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>
</div></figure>



<h3>“…we plan to go home with the World Cup…”</h3>



The optimistic and ambitious lyrics of the song were not prophetic in the end, of course. 



The USA went 0-0-3 with a -5 goal difference in group play at the tournament. The draw did them no favors, pairing them with hosts Italy (L 1-0), Czechoslovakia (L 5-1), and Austria (L 2-1).



But regardless of the results at the World Cup, the 1990 team laid the foundation for the USA sides that would follow. 



They would not be the last US players to make the World Cup, nor would they be the last to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PhRq0UxF74" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">drop some beats</a>.



Photo: Imago.

USA World Cup video 'Victory' from 1990 is a must watch

Break out your parachute pants and boombox and strap in for the 1990 USA World Cup team's anthem and music video.

USA World Cup video 'Victory' from 1990 is a must watch - World Soccer Talk

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Don’t panic, I’m not going to go all Oprah on you all, but I’ve got a confession to make that a man of my age can’t hide. Every 4 years, the World Cup comes around and over here in Europe we’ve a company called Panini who make sticker books for most major tournaments and leagues. Since the 1980’s I used to collect them until about 1988 until the surly teenager in me decided I was far too mature to muck about with such childish entertainment. No more swapping&nbsp; Ian Rush for Gary Lineker in the school yard, oh no. I’d got beer, music and girls to keep me interested instead.
I know in the States that the big thing for junior sports fans is trading cards, which have only recently taken off here in the UK, so I’m unsure as to what anyone based in North America will make of them or even know what they are, but in Europe they’re big business. Yet, since the 1998 World Cup, I’ve always bought a Panini World Cup sticker book. I can’t help myself and I got the latest one last week. No really, I did.

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Of course these days, the Internet is here and I can trawl through cyberspace laughing away at some of the ridiculous haircuts, mustaches and kits of yesteryear. There is such a wave of nostalgia for these sticker books that I’ve even seen articles from Germany discussing the way players used to look, which you can read at Bild’s website <a href="http:\/\/www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-english/sport-news/football/bundesliga/2008/09/24/the-best-german-football-haircuts-from/panini-stickers-of-80s-and-90s.html" target="_blank">here </a>and see if you recognise any of the names mentioned!!
It’s just weird that here I am with all the modern entertainment I have at my disposal, from my X-Box, to Digital TV, DVD’s and my I-pod that something so basic, so simple should still have such an emotional attachment to me. On the Guardian website the other week, someone sent in a link to this <a href="http:\/\/www.footballspotter.com/complete-panini-italia-90-collection/" target="_blank">fantastic site </a>which has scanned the entire Italia 90 sticker book online! A virtual reality treasure trove of memories, both good and bad of such an amazing tournament.Have a scroll through it, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
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That was probably the catalyst for me to delve back in to trying, once again to complete the album, which I know now I won’t do, even though I tell myself I shall. It’s amazing that something so trivial can transport you back to a more innocent time and looking back you can see so many names that have drifted away in to the depths of time.
Grown men all over the UK have started to secretly pretend they’ve got kids now to try and cover up their sticker based addictions, as this current thread on a <a href="http:\/\/www.cpfc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=195171" target="_blank">Crystal Palace message board proves</a>. I am not alone in my addiction, though I doubt I can seek counseling over such vices but it’s nice to know I’m not the saddest man out there. After purchasing my latest sticker book, I was disappointed to only get 2 England players out of 70 stickers which means of course that’ll keep buying them! The seminal British magazine When Saturday Comes has also seen some of its contributors weigh in with some memories of those days too. An amusing discussion is still trundling along <a href="http:\/\/www.wsc.co.uk/component/option,com_kunena/Itemid,73/func,view/catid,27/id,363320/" target="_blank">here.</a>
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For me, it’s a fundamental part of the World Cup experience for fans over here young and old and even now, nearly 30 years on from my first sticker book, Espana 1982, it’s heartwarming to see the Panini World Cup sticker book on the shelves in stores. It’s one of those things that sets the clock ticking down towards the kick off to the tournament and with it, a little bit of me thinks back to those faraway days of swapping stickers with school friends.

My Guilty World Cup Secret - World Soccer Talk

My Guilty World Cup Secret

<div id="attachment_10709" style="width: 213px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><div><figure class="image"></figure></div>South Africa 2010</div>
Almost twenty years ago England went to Poland knowing that a draw would qualify them for Italia 90. A backs-to-the wall performance and the magnificence of Peter Shilton ensured they had their point and the team then went onto reach the semi-finals of the tournament that arguably saved English football from itself and ultimately elevated it to today’s dizzy heights.
Were it not for the&nbsp;crossbar however that Poland hit in the last minute with the superlative Shilton well beaten, England would have&nbsp;lost that night and not have qualified for Italia 90.&nbsp; &nbsp;There would have been no glorious <a href="http:\/\/www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH_Yt0K3tZA">semi-final defeat</a>, no tears from Gazza and the EPL might never have been born. Yet lady luck was smiling on England that night and here we are some 20 years on with England once again on the brink of the finals of the World Cup.&nbsp; Like Bobby Robson’s team, England remain unbeaten throughout their qualifying campaign but there is unlikely to be a repeat of that night in Chorzow where England had to get a result as their campaign for South Africa draws to a close.
Should England fail on Wednesday they have a second and a third stab at qualification against the Ukraine and Belarus respectively in October although in all likelihood their passage to South Africa next summer will be sealed with those two games to spare.

There’s something about a do-or-die game however that somehow makes it all seem worthwhile. All those weekends where the EPL comes to a grinding halt and all eyes are fixed firmly on the England camp seem to frustrate fans and managers alike but when it all comes&nbsp;down to one night, it&nbsp;serves up a starter that wets our appetite for the main course of the Finals themselves next summer.
In years’ gone by, as well as the nail-biter in Poland, England supporters have endured the catastrophe in <a href="http:\/\/www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Us6K9HLhcs">Rotterdam in 1993</a>, the miracle of <a href="http:\/\/www.youtube.com/watch?v=_10WqWZ3qds">Rome in 1997</a>, David Beckhams <a href="http:\/\/www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRMa0285d4I">finest hour </a>in 2001 although last time around in 2005 it was something of a damp squib as Sven’s men actually qualified for Germany on the back of a <a href="http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/4319660.stm">Dutch victory</a> over the Czech Republic.
Of course the misery of failing to qualify for Euro 2008 is still relatively fresh in people’s minds and whilst you could argue that England have come on in leaps and bounds since that <a href="http:\/\/www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaBvsqUlMsU">horror show </a>in 2007 – ironically also against Wednesday’s opponents Croatia – it could be argued that international football is steadily falling down the interest radar. Of course everyone loves the World Up but the whole qualification process? It just seems inconvenient particularly to fans of the Bloated Four although it must be said but when it is their teams that are pretty much decimated by international call ups you can maybe see their point. 
There was a time when England games seemed to really matter and they&nbsp;would capture the imagination of the English public in as much as they seemed to unite the football world but now they seem nothing more than a little sideshow than needs to be gotten out of the way before everyone can back to the real deal of the EPL.
With two huge games coming up on September 12th (Man City v Arsenal; Spurs v Man Utd) when the league resumes it is sometimes hard to get too excited about the international scene&nbsp;but come next summer no doubt even England’s biggest critics will be on the bandwagon&nbsp;although it is fair to say that the EPL has become the be all and end all of football in England and sadly that seems to include international football as well.
As far as Capello is concerned, well all he has done really is take the same group of players and taught them how to win again in a not too dissimilar way that one of his predecessors Sven Goran Erickson had England playing. It’s not pretty but it is effective – albeit against mediocre opposition it must be said. &nbsp;Indeed, perhaps one of the biggest reasons for England’s recent winning streak is not necessarily the new manager but the standard of opposition in their group. You can only beat what’s in front of you and England has obviously done that but without really making anyone sit up and take notice. There’s still questions about the left side of midfield, there’s still doubts about Gerrard and Lampard in the same team and whilst those issues have been part and parcel of the England set up for years it seems there’s now doubts about just who is the first choice goalkeeper and just who should partner Rooney up front if there is to be a partner for him at all.
The warm up game against Slovania on Saturday will merely be a taster for the big event on Wednesday with Capello hoping above all to avoid any injuries to his squad so he may play his first team.&nbsp; Looking at the team that faced Poland in 1989 what Capello wouldn’t give for the likes of Shilton, Bryan Robson and Gary Lineker to be lining up for him.&nbsp; Indeed it makes the mouth water doesn’t it?&nbsp; Gerrard and Robson together in the middle of the park?&nbsp; Rooney and Lineker up front?&nbsp; Maybe England would even progress beyond the Quarter Final stage and maybe even…nah, it wouldn’t be the same without&nbsp;a heartbreaking penalty shootout loss would it?
<a href="http:\/\/www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8kOsi51Sf0">Poland</a><a href="http:\/\/www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8kOsi51Sf0"> 0-0 England 
</a>11 October,1989 
Stadion Slaski, Chorzow 

<a href="http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Shilton" target="_blank">Peter Shilton [Derby County]</a> 
G<a href="http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Stevens" target="_blank">ary Stevens [Glasgow Rangers]</a> 
<a href="http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Pearce" target="_blank">Stuart Pearce [Nottingham Forest]</a> 
<a href="http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Des_Walker" target="_blank">Desmond Walker [Nottingham Forest]</a> 
<a href="http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Butcher" target="_blank">Terence Butcher [Glasgow Rangers]</a> 
<a href="http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rocastle" target="_blank">David Rocastle [Arsenal]</a> 
<a href="http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Robson" target="_blank">Bryan Robson [Manchester United]</a> 
<a href="http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_McMahon" target="_blank">Stephen McMahon [Liverpool]</a> 
C<a href="http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Waddle" target="_blank">hristopher Waddle [Marseille]</a> 
<a href="http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Beardsley" target="_blank">Peter Beardsley [Liverpool]</a> 
<a href="http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Lineker" target="_blank">Gary Lineker [Tottenham Hotspur]</a>

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