Numerous football clubs in England and Italy commemorated the deceased former Italian international Gianluca Vialli with special warm-up jerseys and minutes of silence at the weekend.
Both the Sampdoria Genoa pros and the Chelsea FC players warmed up in shirts with the number 9 in Sunday’s games. The nine was Viallis shirt number in Genoa and in London, where he had played in his active career, among other things.
Vialli died on Friday at the age of 58 after suffering from cancer. In all Italian Serie A games, the 59-time national player was remembered with a minute’s silence before kick-off at the weekend.
Chelsea’s pros were also silent for a minute in honor of Vialli ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup game at Manchester City. A photo of Viallis, who had last worked as the head of the Italian national team’s delegation, was shown on the video screen. “A moment to remember Gianluca,” wrote the blues on a photo of the scene on Twitter.