Yahoo Sports Schillaci ‘apologised’ from hospital bed, says Italy legend’s daughter
Salvatore ‘Totò’ Schillaci’s daughter Jessica said his father told her to be ‘sorry’ for not having been present enough as he lay in a hospital bed just a few days before dying from colon cancer at the age of 59.
The former striker, who took the spotlight during the Azzurri’s campaign at the 1990 World Cup played in Italy, died at a hospital in Palermo on Wednesday. His funerals, held in the city’s cathedral on Friday morning, were attended by thousands of fans and ordinary people.
Schillaci had been diagnosed with colon cancer in 2022, and his daughter Jessica shared some touching memories of one of the last conversations they had before his passing, as quoted by Tuttosport.
“Three days ago, as my brother Mattia and I were at his bedside, we told him that TV operators were already outside of the hospital”, she said.
“He told us: ‘I only care about you’. And he said he was sorry for not being present all the times he would’ve wished, and we would’ve wished.
Totò Schillaci’s daughter Jessica: ‘We joked until it was possible’
“I know how the end-of-life process [for sick people] works, but sharing this path with your father, a young father, is truly lacerating”, she added.
“We talked, we also joked until it was possible. We recalled the best moments in our lives, the ones you’ll never forget, that even death won’t be able to take away from me”.
“He was a hero in his own way, but he was just a father to me.
“I took some days off in July to stay with my dad. We went to Isola delle Femmine; he would’ve wanted to take me on a boat trip, but he was already very tired.
“We settled for a bath in the sea and a fish lunch; it was wonderful. You could see he was struggling when he took me back to the airport.
“The situation got worse in the last days: my dad started to play a game he knew he would lose”.
“But he played it until the end, not thinking about him but about all the people he loved, and he’ll keep loving wherever he is now.”
Schillaci played for Inter and Juventus in Serie A, scoring 37 goals in 120 games in Italy’s top flight. With the Bianconeri, he won one Coppa Italia and one UEFA Cup, now the Europa League. The ex-striker played for two seasons in Japan for Júbilo Iwata before retiring in 1994.
