The Sicilian Vincenzo, who was compared to Rivera and Platini and played with mixed success with Inter and Torino, was the progenitor of a series of sons of Italian immigrants who illuminated football in the 1980s and 1990s. No champions but many good players who left their mark
Vincenzo Scifo – who today 19 February celebrates his 60th birthday – was the most talented paisa of the 80s: he played a football with clean geometries, he was elegant and prim and even in his hairstyle – the boy slicked himself with gel like Ralph Macchio in Karate Kid – there was the desire to mark a style. Son of Agostino and Alfonsina, Sicilians from Aragon, in the province of Agrigento, who in the 1950s – when the sulfur mines had closed – had left for other mines and other obscurities, towards La Louvière, in Belgium; Vincenzino had the confidential relationship with the ball that children have with a teddy bear. When he arrived at Inter in 1987, he had already polished his crystalline talent at Anderlecht, a club that had seen him make his debut at just seventeen. He was twenty-one years old and had a personality that would only take full shape later in time. He wasn’t Rivera – yes, they compared him to the AC Milan legend – and not even Platini – it was written that he could be considered Le Roi’s “little brother” and Michel himself had chosen him as his possible heir – but he had something of both, albeit in a smaller quantity than the two champions. The truth is that with the ball at his feet he made things happen effortlessly, yet in every situation he appeared as focused as an astronaut on his first mission. Little personality, in fact. However, an excellent midfielder, so much so that Enzo Bearzot – in the mid-80s – tried to understand if there was a possibility of having him play for Italy. Here he wore the Inter shirt for just one season (1987-88) and for two – decidedly more solid – that of Torino (1991-93).