Gianluca Vialli’s incredible generosity revealed when he and Zola took Chelsea staffer for dinner – and gave him a BMW
GIANLUCA VIALLI and Gianfranco Zola’s incredible generosity of buying a Chelsea staffer a BMW has been revealed.
Chelsea and Italian legend Vialli has sadly passed away aged 58 following a brave battle with cancer.
The ex-forward has been hailed by his friends and former team-mates, who all gave emotional tributes.
Graeme Souness, who played with Vialli at Sampdoria, called his close pal a “gorgeous soul”.
Journalist and presenter Matt Lorenzo followed this up with an amazing story on how Vialli and Zola treated a Chelsea employee.
Lorenzo tweeted: “Vialli and Zola, two gentlemen of the game, decided to show their gratitude to Gary Staker, the Chelsea liaison officer who is half Italian.
“They took him for a meal at an expensive restaurant but asked him to give them a lift, asking a waiter to park his car.
“After the meal, Staker was upset because to find his Ford was nowhere to be seen.
“Until he realised the brand new BMW parked outside was his, a gift from Vialli and his friend. RIP Gianluca.”
Vialli won 13 major trophies during his time as a player – including Serie A, the Champions League, the FA Cup and League Cup.
As a manager, he guided Chelsea to FA Cup, League Cup and Charity Shield glory.
Vialli was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2017 but sadly lost his battle.
Souness, 69, was a team-mate of his at Sampdoria in the 1980s and was visibly devastated by the news.
Speaking to Sky Sports just moments after Vialli’s death was confirmed, the Scot said: “Sorry, I’ve only had the news ten minutes ago and I can’t tell you how good a guy he was.
“Forget football for a minute, he was just a gorgeous soul. He was a truly nice human being.
“I went to Italy when I was 31-years-old. He was 20 and he was just fabulous to be around.
Forget football for a minute, he was just a gorgeous soul. He was a truly nice human being.
Graeme Souness on Gianluca Vialli
“Such a fun loving guy, he was full of mischief. He was such a warm individual and a fabulous player.
“But I don’t want to talk about his footballing, I want to talk about him as a human being.
“Because I don’t remember when I hear his name, and I’m going to hear a lot of his name, correctly so and people paying plaudits to him, magnificent things about his playing ability… yeah – but what a human being – above all that, what a human being.
“And my condolences go to his family and his wife and they’ve been blessed that their paths crossed. The kids were blessed they had a dad like that, his wife was blessed to have a man like that.”
Souness went on to add: “I’m no doctor really but when I looked at him I thought I saw a man who was still in the fight when he was here during the Euros and they managed to win it.
“I think it’s so typical of him that he kept it very private, very personal and he took it on as I’d expect him to take it on.
“It was his fight, wanted to deal with it himself, didn’t want to burden other people with it.”