Gianluca Vialli was born in Cremona, on July 9, 1964.
An icon of Italian football in the 1980s and 1990s, he played for the "Azzurri" at the 1986 and 1990 World Cups. He also led Sampdoria to the victory of the first and only “Scudetto” in the club history, in the season 1990-91.
In 1996, after having captained Juventus to the Champions League title, he moved to London, where he joined Chelsea. The following season, he was named player-manager and remained in charge until September 2000. He then spent a season managing Watford, Elton John's club, in the Championship.
He is considered one of the best Italian strikers in history and is one of only nine players to have won all three major international club competitions and is also a published author.
Today he works as a television analyst for Sky Italia, headlining their Champions League and Serie A coverage alongside Paolo Rossi.
He is also active with his foundation, the Fondazione Vialli e Mauro, which aims to raise funds for research into cancer and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Gianluca Vialli Playing career in Italy
Vialli made his debut in May of 1981, with Cremonese, his local team.
In his first season he helped win promotion to Serie B and, a year later, played a key role in helping Cremonese reach Serie A for the first time in their history.
The following summer he moved to Sampdoria, for whom he made his debut on September 16, against none other than Cremonese.
With Sampdoria, he was Serie A's top goalscorer in 1990-91, the year the club won their first and only Italian championship.
He also helped Sampdoria win three Italian cups the italian Suprcup and the Cupwinners' Cup. And in 1991-92, he led Sampdoria all the way to the Champions' League final, where they narrowly lost to Johan Cruyff's Barcelona.
Gianluca Vialli Playing career in Italy
In the summer of 1992, he joined Juventus for a world record fee of £15.7 million. In his four seasons with the "Vecchia Signora" he won the Uefa cup, an Italian Cup,an Italian SuperCup and a Serie A title.
But the biggest trophy arrived in May 1996, in Rome, when Juventus defeated Ajax on penalty kicks, finally conquering, as captain, the trophy which eluded him four years earier with Sampdoria at Wembley.
At international level, he reached the final for the Under 21 European Championships in 1986.
As a full international, he scored 16 goals for Italy and featured in the 1986 and 1990 World Cups, as well as the 1988 European Championships. He also guided Italy win the 1987 world military championships.
Overall, in twenty years of professional football, he scored nearly 300 goals.
Gianluca Vialli Playing and managerial career in England
In the summer of 1996, after four years at Juventus, he moved to London and joined Chelsea, winning the FA Cup in his first season.
In February of 1998, he was named player-manager, marking the beginning of a new career. In just over two seasons, he guided the club to five more titles: another FA Cup, a League Cup, the Cupwinners' Cup, the European SuperCup and the Charity Shield.
Gianluca Vialli The “Fondazione Vialli e Mauro”
Together with his friend, the journalist Gabriele Marcotti, he wrote "The Italian Job: A Journey to the Heart of Two Great Footballing Cultures", which compares and contrasts the game in Italy and England. "The Italian Job" was published by Transworld in May 2006 and, subsequently, by Mondadori in Italy.
In March 2004, Vialli enters the world of philanthropy, launching the "Fondazione Vialli e Mauro per la ricerca e lo sport", together with Massimo Mauro and Cristina Grande Stevens.
The non-profit foundation raises funds to finance scientific research into cancer and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Thus far, the foundation has raised almost three million euros for scientific research purposes.
The "Fondazione Vialli e Mauro" is - together with AISLA, Telethon and Fondazione Cariplo - a founding member of ARISLA, an organization which coordinates and finances scientific research into ALS.
Gianluca Vialli Television career
Vialli's television career dates back to 1990, when, still active as a player, he presented the popular European highlights show "Settimana Goal" on the Italia 1 network.
Since July 2003 he has been a consultant to Sky Italia, for whom he also serves as a lead on-screen pundit and as the face of their advertising campaigns.
He is a mainstay of Sky Italia's Champions League coverage and, together with Paolo Rossi, co-presented "Attenti a quei due", a football chat show which was voted programme of the year by Sky Italia subscribers.
Gianluca Vialli Promotional campaigns and honours
Vialli has participated in a number of advertising and promotional campaigns for a number of leading brands, both in Italy and abroad.
He began at the age of 18, with LatteSpondi, since then he has featured for, among others, Iceberg, Adidas, Asics, Diadora, Robe di Kappa, Ferrero, TIM, Tele+, Citroen, De Agostini, BSkyB and Sky Italia.
Honours: On September 30, 1991, the President of the Italian Republic named him "Cavaliere della Repubbilca italiana", the Italian equivalent of a knighthood. And, on February 26, 2006, he was an Olympic flagbearer a tthe XX Winter Olympiad in Torino.
Gianluca Vialli Personal life
Gianluca Vialli was born in Cremona, on July 9, 1964. He has lived in London since 1996 with his wife Cathryn and his two daughters.
In 1993, at the age of twenty-eight, he obtained his high school diploma.
He devotes his free time to his family, golf and his passion for flying.
Gianluca Vialli