Toto Schillaci he didn’t make it. The former footballer passed away at the Civic Hospital in Palermo where he was hospitalized. The conditions of the 59-year-old symbol of the infamous “Magic Nights” of Italia ’90, had worsened over the last few hours and already yesterday evening there was talk of a “significant worsening”. Schillaci had been hospitalized in the pneumology department of the Civic Hospital in the Sicilian capital since last September 7. The former Azzurri striker had been fighting against a tumor for some time.
From the very beginning, messages of condolence and closeness to the family began to arrive from every corner of the football world, testifying to how much the symbol of the “Magic Nights” has left to his former clubs and more generally to the common thought of the Italian people. And not only that. A strong and heartfelt thought also arrived for him from FIFA, through the voice of President Infantino: “”The magical nights of Italia ’90. The eyes wide open after the goals. The runs with arms raised. A leap along a career, from Palermo to eternity. Dear Totò Schillaci, you were a great king who came from the people, a person who remained simple despite his greatness. Open your eyes again, wherever you are. Run. In the meantime, we whistle the anthem of that FIFA World Cup: Magic Nights, precisely. That dream that begins as a child/and that takes you further and further/is not a fairy tale and from the locker rooms/the boys come out/and we are us. It wasn’t a fairy tale, it was your story. They didn’t know it yet, but they had written it for you”, the message from the Fifa number one.
The funeral chapel was opened yesterday afternoon and today, from 7am to 10pm, the body will be laid out in front of the Renzo Barbera in Palermo so that fans and acquaintances can give him a final farewell.