Known by most as “Toto,” Schillaci scored six goals to win the Golden Boot in the World Cup held in his native country in 1990.
The Italian and Sport chatted in 2014. About the tournament and his life. This is an older version of the interview that was released.
At the end of the 1990 World Cup, Salvatore Schillaci was the most well-liked person in Italy. However, he began it with 3,000 enraged fans kicking the bodywork, spitting at the windows, and trapping him inside his car.
He was greeted with it at the Azzurri’s pre-World Cup training camp in Florence, when he inadvertently drove into a brawl his team, Juventus, had started.
Police had to come to Schillaci’s aid since he was the wrong man at the wrong place at the wrong time. Later that summer, things could not have been more different as he scored goal after opportunistic goal.
It was already highly improbable that he was included in the Italy team. The swarthy Sicilian striker had begun his career nine years ago, earning £1.50 per goal for a local amateur club. He was raised in poverty on the streets of Palermo and never attended school.
Granted, he had won the Coppa Italia and the Uefa Cup and cost £3 million when Juventus signed him in 1989, but he was still mostly unknown. It was only his first season of playing.
