ROME (AP) — Salvatore “Totò” Schillaci, the Italy striker who was top scorer at the 1990 World Cup that his country hosted and epitomized a player exceeding expectations on soccer’s biggest stage, has died. He was 59.
Schillaci had been hospitalized in Palermo following treatment for colon cancer.
Click to Gallery
Juventus' Salvatore "Totò" Schillaci, center, attends a team training session with teammates Giancarlo Marocchi, left, and Oleksandr Zavarov, in Turin, Italy, between 1989 and 1990. (LaPresse via AP)
Italy Salvatore "Totò" Schillaci, right, controls the ball during a World Cup soccer match between Italy and Austria, in Rome, on June 9, 1990. (LaPresse via AP)
Italy's Salvatore "Totò" Schillaci, right, in action during a World Cup soccer match between Italy and the United States, in Rome, on June 14, 1990. (LaPresse via AP)
Italy's Salvatore "Totò Schillaci, right, celebrates with teammate Roberto Baggio after scoring a goal during the World Cup soccer match between Italy and Uruguay, in Rome, on June 25, 1990. (LaPresse via AP)
FILE - Italian forward Salvatore "Totò" Schillaci, center, celebrates after scoring the first goal for Italy in the World Cup game against Czechoslovakia, in Rome, Italy, June 19, 1990. (AP Photo/Martin Cleaver, file)
FILE- Former Italian striker Salvatore "Totò" Schillaci is overcome by emotion as he arrives at the reality show "L'Isola dei Famosi" in Milan, Italy, Friday, Nov. 19, 2004. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, file)
FILE - Italy's Salvatore "Totò" Schillaci, left, and Argentina's Juan Simon chase the ball during the Soccer World Cup semi-final, in Naples, Italy, July 3, 1990. (AP Photo, file)
The Palermo Civico hospital said in a statement that Schillacci died on Wednesday morning after being admitted 11 days ago.
Schillaci scored six goals for Italy during the 1990 World Cup. He came on as a substitute during Italy’s opener against Austria, scored in a 1-0 victory, and went on to earn the Golden Boot awarded to the tournament’s top scorer.
Schillaci had never scored for Italy before the 1990 World Cup, having previously only played once for the national team. Overall, he made 16 appearances for Italy and scored seven goals — six of them at the World Cup.
Italian soccer federation president Gabriele Gravina announced that a minute of silence would be held in memory of Schillaci before all games in the country for the rest of the week.
“The uncontrollable celebrations, in which his face was the symbol of shared joy, will remain forever part of Italian soccer (history),” Gravina said. “Totò was a great player, a symbol of tenacious desire and redemption. ... His soccer was full of passion. And that fearless spirit made everyone appreciate him and will make him immortal.”
Schillaci also won the Golden Ball award at the 1990 World Cup as the tournament's top player ahead of Lothar Matthaus and Diego Maradona.
“Thank you for the emotions you gave us, for making us dream, cheer, hug and wave our Tricolore,” Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni wrote on X.
Schillaci played for Messina, Juventus, Inter Milan and Japanese team Jubilo Iwata during his club career.
“Ciao Totò,” Juventus said on Instagram.
“You made an entire nation dream during the Magical Nights of Italia ’90,” Inter said on its social media channels.
West Germany won the 1990 World Cup, beating Argentina in the final, while Italy beat England for third place with a winning penalty kick from Schillaci.
Roberto Baggio, who scored Italy's opening goal in the third-place match, wrote on Instagram, “Ciao my dear friend.”
With Schillaci having been born and raised in Palermo, the city will hold a public viewing of Schillaci at its Renzo Barbera stadium ahead of the funeral.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Juventus' Salvatore "Totò" Schillaci, center, attends a team training session with teammates Giancarlo Marocchi, left, and Oleksandr Zavarov, in Turin, Italy, between 1989 and 1990. (LaPresse via AP)
Italy Salvatore "Totò" Schillaci, right, controls the ball during a World Cup soccer match between Italy and Austria, in Rome, on June 9, 1990. (LaPresse via AP)
Italy's Salvatore "Totò" Schillaci, right, in action during a World Cup soccer match between Italy and the United States, in Rome, on June 14, 1990. (LaPresse via AP)
Italy's Salvatore "Totò Schillaci, right, celebrates with teammate Roberto Baggio after scoring a goal during the World Cup soccer match between Italy and Uruguay, in Rome, on June 25, 1990. (LaPresse via AP)
FILE - Italian forward Salvatore "Totò" Schillaci, center, celebrates after scoring the first goal for Italy in the World Cup game against Czechoslovakia, in Rome, Italy, June 19, 1990. (AP Photo/Martin Cleaver, file)
FILE- Former Italian striker Salvatore "Totò" Schillaci is overcome by emotion as he arrives at the reality show "L'Isola dei Famosi" in Milan, Italy, Friday, Nov. 19, 2004. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, file)
FILE - Italy's Salvatore "Totò" Schillaci, left, and Argentina's Juan Simon chase the ball during the Soccer World Cup semi-final, in Naples, Italy, July 3, 1990. (AP Photo, file)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike on a hospital courtyard in the Gaza Strip early Monday killed at least four people and triggered a fire that swept through a tent camp for people displaced by the war, leaving more than two dozen with severe burns, according to Palestinian medics.
The Israeli military said it targeted militants hiding out among civilians, without providing evidence. In recent months it has repeatedly struck crowded shelters and tent camps, alleging that Hamas fighters were using them as staging grounds for attacks.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah was already struggling to treat a large number of wounded from an earlier strike on a school-turned-shelter that killed at least 20 people when the early morning airstrike hit and fire engulfed many of the tents.
Several secondary explosions could be heard after the initial strike, but it was not immediately clear if they were caused by weapons or fuel tanks.
Associated Press footage showed children among the wounded. A man sobbed as he carried a toddler with a bandaged head in his arms. Another small child with a bandaged leg was given a blood transfusion on the floor of the packed hospital.
Hospital records showed that four people were killed and 40 wounded. Twenty-five people were transferred to the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza after suffering severe burns, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Israel is still carrying out near-daily strikes across the Gaza Strip more than a year into the war, and has been waging a major ground assault in the north, where it says militants have regrouped.
The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, while Palestinian militants abducted around 250 hostages. Around 100 are still being held inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters but says women and children make up more than half the fatalities. Around 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people have been displaced by the war, often multiple times, and large areas of the coastal territory have been completely destroyed.
Israel has ordered the entire remaining population of the northern third of Gaza, estimated at around 400,000 people, to evacuate to the south and has not allowed any food to enter the north since the start of the month. Hundreds of thousands of people from the north heeded Israeli evacuation orders at the start of the war and have not been allowed to return.
That has raised fears among Palestinians that Israel intends to implement a plan devised by former generals in which it would order all civilians out of northern Gaza and label anyone remaining there a combatant — a surrender-or-starve strategy that rights groups say would violate international law. The plan has been presented to the Israeli government, but it's unclear whether it has been adopted.
With no end in sight to the war in Gaza, Israel is also waging an air and ground war in southern Lebanon against the Hezbollah militant group, an ally of Hamas that has been firing rockets into northern Israel for more than a year. Israel has also threatened to strike Iran in retaliation for a ballistic missile attack, raising the prospect of an all-out regionwide war.
A Hezbollah aerial attack on an army base in northern Israel killed four soldiers — all of them 19 years old — and severely wounded seven others Sunday, the military said, in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago.
Hezbollah called the attack near Binyamina city retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people. It said it targeted Israel’s elite Golani brigade, launching dozens of missiles to occupy Israeli air defense systems during the assault by drones.
Israel’s national rescue service said the attack wounded 61. It’s rare for so many people to be wounded by drones or missiles, most of which are intercepted by Israel's multitiered air defenses or fall in open areas.
Magdy reported from Cairo.
Find more of AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
An Israeli Apache helicopter fires a missile towards southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israeli soldiers display what they say are Hezbollah ammunition and explosives found during their ground operation in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
Israeli soldiers display what they say is an entrance to a Hezbollah tunnel found during their ground operation in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
Israeli soldiers are seen during a ground operation in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
Israeli soldiers display what they say is an entrance to a Hezbollah tunnel found during their ground operation in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
Israeli soldiers are seen during a ground operation in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
Palestinians try to extinguish fire caused by an Israeli strike that hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian firefighters try to extinguish a fire caused by an Israeli strike that hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians try to extinguish a fire caused by an Israeli strike that hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian firefighters try to extinguish a fire caused by an Israeli strike that hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians inspect the damage at a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital, hit by an Israeli bombardment on Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A Palestinian man reacts to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
