Legends
Gianluca Vialli
- Name
- Gianluca Vialli
- Years at Chelsea
- 1996–2000
- Position
- Striker / manager
- Honours
- FA Cup: 1996–97 (player), 1999–2000 (manager)
- League Cup: 1997–98 (player-manager)
- UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup: 1997–98 (player-manager)
- UEFA Super Cup: 1998 (manager)
- FA Charity Shield: 2000 (manager)
Gianluca Vialli arrived on a free transfer in the summer of 1996, weeks after lifting the Champions League as Juventus captain. His signing was a sign from Gullit’s Chelsea that ambitions had changed.
On the pitch he gave us moments that last: two goals in the 4–2 FA Cup comeback against Liverpool in 1997, the winner at Old Trafford in November 1996, four goals in one game at Barnsley. In all he scored 40 goals for Chelsea and won the 1997 FA Cup as a player.
In February 1998 he became player-manager. Within months he had won the League Cup and the Cup Winners’ Cup, and at 33 years and 308 days he became the youngest manager ever to win a UEFA competition. The 1998 Super Cup followed, then the FA Cup and Charity Shield in 2000. Five trophies as manager: in the club’s history only Mourinho has more.
His Chelsea finished third in 1998–99 and earned the club’s first Champions League place. In 1999–2000 they reached the quarter-finals and beat Barcelona 3–1 at Stamford Bridge. He was dismissed in September 2000.
Vialli died in 2023, aged 58. To supporters he remains the elegant Italian who brought smiles and silverware, and who truly loved this club.
Sources
- Chelsea FC — Gianluca Vialli 1964–2023 (1996 move, goals, trophies as manager, youngest UEFA-winning manager)
- Chelsea FC — Nine Vialli facts (details of his time at the club)
- Wikipedia — Gianluca Vialli (career, honours as a player)
- Wikimedia Commons — Gianluca Vialli.jpg (photo: RISE, CC BY 2.0)
