At the funeral of Toto Schillaci the FIGC was also present in the person of its president Gabriel GravinaThe federation’s number one spoke via the official website, as can be read in the note:
“The embrace of his people, the last emotional farewell to the man who symbolized the ‘Magical Nights’. Thousands of people crowded the churchyard of Palermo Cathedral, where Salvatore Schillaci’s funeral took place this morning. The coffin, covered by the tricolor flag, the national team jersey and the scarves of Messina, Palermo and Juventus, was welcomed by chants and applause and a banner with the words ‘Ciao Totò, son of Palermo!’.
Representatives of local institutions and various authorities from the world of sport and politics also wanted to pay homage to the hero of Italia ’90, from the mayor of Palermo Roberto Lagalla to the president of the FIGC Gabriele Gravina, from the president of the pink club Dario Mirri to the former federal president Antonio Matarrese. And then his former teammates in Azzurro Beppe Bergomi, Luigi De Agostini and Giuseppe Giannini, the Palermo footballers Matteo Brunori, Francesco Di Mariano (nephew of Totò) and Jacopo Segre, the sports director Morgan De Sanctis and his deputy Giulio Migliaccio. At the end of the homily, officiated by the parish priest of the Cathedral Filippo Sarullo, the exit of the coffin was greeted with a very long applause.
“Italian football gathers around Totò’s family and the city of Palermo – the words of president Gravina – which today mourns one of its most authentic and beloved symbols. Schillaci will always remain an Azzurri legend and we will also remember him on the occasion of the next match of the National team in Rome (Italy-Belgium on October 10, ed.), in the stadium that made him the hero of the ‘Magic Nights’”.