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Vialli, the sincere story of the disease: “Cancer, an unwanted travel companion”

It is not for everyone and it is not an everyday thing to talk about one’s illness. When sportsmen do it, the noise is even louder because those who play sports seem to have an advantage: more trained, stronger, less beatable. Perhaps then the disease is almost scarier, there is no advantage in feeling invulnerable. Gianluca Vialli he knows and tells it: “Cancer is an unwanted travel companion, but I can’t help it.”

The former blue player, today head of the delegation National, was struck by pancreatic cancer in 2017. “He got on the train with me and I have to go ahead, travel with my head down, never giving up, hoping that one day this unwanted guest will get tired and let me live peacefully again for many years because there are still many things I want to do, “he said in the Rai docuseries Blue Dream which follows the path of the Italian national team towards the European Championship.

«I was a player and a strong and vulnerable man. Someone can be recognized with the desire to do something important. Cancer is stronger than me and if you fight it you lose. He is a travel companion, with his head down, without giving up, hoping that one day he will get tired and let me live the years in front of me serenely ». There is no rhetoric in the former Sampdoria and Juventus player.

His life is the present. It is the national team coached by its “twin” on the pitch, Roberto Mancini. “He’s a serious leader and he knows he doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone. From day one, the goal we have set ourselves has always been to make the Italian fans, who had drifted away a bit, entertained again. I think it is right to bring Italy back to the top of the world ». They will do it together with many former Sampdorians who are part of the staff. They were a group that became legendary, one of the last small ones capable of winning a championship. The beautiful stories of football that Vialli does not want to stop living.

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