Hours of apprehension for Totò Schillaci. The Italia 90 striker is hospitalized in the pneumology department of Palermo's Civico Hospital in serious condition.
The former footballer, hero of the magical nights, has been undergoing treatment for a tumor for a few years and has also undergone operations. He was treated at the La Maddalena clinic and has been in the city hospital since yesterday evening.
Confirmation of his condition came on his social profile from his family: “Totò is in stable conditions and is being monitored by a team of doctors night and day” and then the wish for his recovery, “Forza Totò”.
Schillaci, 59, also talked about his illness, the therapies, the fear at the time of diagnosis and then the disease that marked him. An illness that he had defeated and that has now returned.
A career that began in Messina and then landed at Juventus, Inter and Jubilo Iwata (Japan), with more than 200 goals, a sporting life that culminated with the 90 World Cup where he was top scorer with 6 goals and the face of the magical Azzurri nights, leading Vicini's national team to dream of the World Cup but finishing third.
A career, which ended in football in Japan, started on the asphalt of the Cep neighborhood, one of the most popular and difficult in the capital. A modest family, three brothers and a sister, the father, a bricklayer, was always his biggest fan and accompanied him everywhere just to make him play. He worked as a tire dealer, a pastry shop boy, a street vendor. Until his recruitment in Messina.
Schillaci was at the La Maddalena oncology clinic when, on January 16, 2023, the boss Messina Denaro was arrested. “It was 8:15 in the morning,” he said, “I was waiting for my check-up, because I am being treated there by doctors Mezzatesta and Mandalà.
I had just finished breakfast at the bar, in an instant I found myself surrounded by hooded people with guns drawn. I thought it was an attack. Then the carabinieri identified themselves, but for a moment I and those around me were scared, there was confusion”.
"A person like Messina Denaro who walks around the city and goes to the clinic like any other citizen makes me think. I have my own theory, but it's a good thing if a problem that has dragged on for thirty years has been solved," he commented.
The former bomber also ran a sports center for young people for years. “I love Palermo and it really bothers me to see it associated only with crime, because it offers so many beautiful things. We need to invest in the neighborhoods, that's true, taking young people off the streets.
I took over the sports center, Louis Ribolla, in a popular area, precisely to give back something of what the city gave me,” he said. In 2004 he participated in the Isola dei Famosi, a year ago he participated with his wife Barbara in the program Pechino Express.
Shortly before, he had undergone two tumor surgeries. “The show,” he says, “was a revenge on the disease that made me suffer so much.” Now the new worsening.
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