Italian football legend, Salvatore Schillaci, is dead at the age of 59 after battling with colon cancer.

The deceased helped his country to win World Cup in 1990, and played for Juventus and Inter Milan in a glittering career spanning 384 matches, scoring 159 goals.
The most famous of these came during that iconic summer when Schillaci went from relative unknown to regular starter in a competitive Azzurri squad.

He ended the tournament clutching the Golden Boot award, having struck six times for Italy, as well as the Player of the Tournament trophy.

The agile striker, who came second in that year’s Ballon d’Or, then struggled for form at his club sides, scoring just eight goals in 42 matches for Juventus the following season.

Recall that in December 2022, Pele, the Brazilian king of football who won a record three World Cups and became one of the most commanding sports figures of the past century, died at the age of 82 after he also battled colon cancer.

The standard-bearer of “the beautiful game” underwent treatment for colon cancer in 2021.

He had been hospitalised for the past month with multiple ailments. Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein Hospital, where Pele was undergoing treatment, said he died at 3:27pm “due to multiple organ failures resulting from the progression of colon cancer associated with his previous medical condition.”

“All that we are is thanks to you,” his daughter Kely Nascimento wrote on Instagram. “We love you endlessly. Rest in peace.”

His agent, Joe Fraga, confirmed his death: “The king has passed.”