Gianluca Vialli: Italy says farewell to a footballing genius who gave us tears, screams, laughter and delight
Italy knew that Gianluca Vialli was dying, but still his loss has shaken this country profoundly.
He was more than just a footballer – he was a cultural figure whose passion for his sport, his country and the sanctity of life came before him.
“Gone too soon,” bemoaned the sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, which described him as “our fragile friend” whose “elegance has always been his hallmark”.
His was not the story of the poor boy made good. Vialli was the son of a self-made millionaire who grew up in a mansion in Lombardy.
But money could not buy his natural skill as a footballer.
He shone for his local team Cremonese, then for Sampdoria, where his ability drew the attention of the world, and then at Juventus, the giants of Turin, who made him into the world’s most expensive footballer and reaped the benefits.
From there, he went on to Chelsea and an enduring love affair with life in London.
But he was never anything other than a proud Italian who worked alongside his dear friend Roberto Mancini in managing the national team.
Their hug, in the wake of victory in the final of the 2020 European Championship, was an image that Italy cherished, and was posted by Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister, in the minutes after Vialli’s death was announced.
Because, for all his absolute genius as a player (and really, he was exceptional, breaking the mould of forward play), I suspect Italy’s sadness is about something else.
Vialli celebrates after scoring for Juventus. Pic: AP
Vialli was passionate, joyful and open with his emotions.
He gave us tears, screams, laughter and exasperation, but always delight.
And he was, by the way, famously stylish – dedicated to the crisp shirt and V-neck jumper look in a way familiar to anyone who has spent time in this country.
He wrote a book about the difference between football in Italy and England and gave the proceeds to charity.
Vialli, in blue, playing for Italy against West Germany in 1988
He lived with cancer and suffered its cruel swings between fear, pain, optimism and then, sadly, the disease’s final victory over him.
And he did so with a blend of openness and fortitude that we could all hope to emulate.
He worked with the national team until just before Christmas before deciding that he needed to stop.
The sort of person you cannot fail to like.
The kind of footballer who is admired by the players and fans of the opposition. And he is gone at the age of 58.
For Italy – and for all of us – it is a sad day.
Elon Musk could be on track for a $1trn pay packet.
Tesla shareholders have approved the whopping financial package for the CEO – who’s already worth an estimated $491bn – if he hits a series of ambitious targets over the next 10 years.
But that $1trn figure (or £761,910,000,000) – which is both one thousand billion and one million million – is almost impossible to imagine for most people.
Even so, we have drilled down into the numbers and examined what you can do with a trillion US dollars – and it turns out, quite a lot.
Show me the money
Laid end to end, a trillion one-dollar bills would cover a distance of approximately 156 billion metres.
That could wrap around the equator 3,890 times, easily reach the sun from Earth (around 149.6 million km) or loop from Earth to the moon 405 times.
That many one-dollar notes could cover a massive area (roughly 10,339 km squared), meaning you could blanket nearly all of Lebanon or Jamaica in bills.
Spend it on sport
You could splash out on virtually all of the world’s major sporting leagues.
The clubs which make up the Premier League are relatively cheap ($30bn), and even when snapping up the UEFA Champions League clubs and the big five top divisions of Spain, Italy, Germany, and France, there’s still $858bn left in the kitty.
The four major US sports leagues for ice hockey, baseball, basketball, and American football (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL) have a rough valuation of $544bn, according to Sportico.
But then add the IPL cricket league ($120bn) and F1 ($23.1bn) and Musk still has change from an estimated total spend of $829.7bn.
Elon Musk is in the money if he hits targets set by Tesla’s shareholders. File pic: AP
Take over Tesla’s rivals
He could buy up the top 15 largest publicly traded automakers (excluding Tesla) by market capitalisation.
They would include firms like Japan’s Toyota ($275bn), Chinese automaker BYD ($120bn), and luxury brands like Ferrari ($81bn) and Mercedes-Benz ($62bn), as well as BMW ($52bn), Volkswagen ($50bn) and Ford ($48bn).
But there would still be a little change left over; the total bill would be an eye-watering $992bn.
Buy up San Diego
He could buy up every single residential property in San Diego County – valued at a total of $1trn. Seattle is just slightly out of reach at $1.1trn, according to recent data from real estate firm Zillow.
But if he wanted to buy big – there is always Tennessee. The total value of homes in the US state is estimated at $957bn. Or there is Maryland, which at $1.01trn could be bought if he can find a little more cash behind the sofa.
Sadly, he would struggle to scoop up London’s entire housing stock, which in February was valued at just under £2trn ($2.53trn), according to agents Savills.
Cities like New York ($4.6trn) and Los Angeles ($3.9trn) are also not within his budget, hosting America’s most expensive residential markets.
Do something charitable?
There is always the possibility Musk could follow in the footsteps of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who intends to give away 99% of his vast fortune over the next 20 years.
He could give every single man, woman, and child in the US a share of his cash pile. They would receive approximately $2,917.32 (£2,223.29), based on a population estimate of 342.7 million.
Although it would be roughly $14,348.79 (£10,935.20) for every person (roughly 69.6 million) in the UK.
If he wanted to give the entire globe an early Christmas present, then based on the rough world population estimate of 8.2 billion, everyone would receive $121.80 (£92.87).
Pay off the credit card
With $1trn, he could instantly rewrite history and erase debt interest payments and the government debt from dozens of the world’s sovereign nations.
Or Musk could wipe out the debts of Singapore ($1trn) or South Korea ($0.99trn) in one go, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook (Oct 2025).
But when it comes to the biggest debt-laden countries, $1trn would not even touch the sides.
The US has $38.3trn of government debt (just over one third of the total global debt pile) while the UK has a modest $4.1trn.
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