"Mancini –Vialli" the Goal twins made Sampdoria glory

CAIRO – 9 June 2017: The partnership between Sampdoria’s strikers Roberto Mancini and Gianluca Vialli led the team to their first-ever title. In 1991 Sampdoria won the Italian Serie A championship over the titans of Italian football: AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus.

Mancini and Vialli formed such a formidable duo they were dubbed the goal twins.

Egypt Today explores the history of each player and the symbiotic relationship the players shared on the field.

Gianluca Vialli

Sampdoria set their sights on the young Vialli in 1984 when he was 20 years old. At the time Vialli had scored 23 goals for his local team Cremonese, leading the team to Serie B. His stellar performance for the team spurred Sampdoria to bring him into their team. He quickly drew the attention of the Italian national team coach as well.

Roberto Mancini

Mancini was born in 1964, the same year Vialli was born. He began his career with Bologna before Joining Sampdoria in 1982 at the age of 18.

Sampdoria brought Mancini for two million Euros.

The partnership

Both strikers helped each other to improve since Vialli joined the team in 1984. The team began to rise up in the Italian league table and finished the 1984 season in fourth place, just 6 points behind the title winners Verona.

Day after day Sampdoria became one of the toughest teams in the Italian league and they qualified to compete in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.

1991 season

With great players such as International Italian goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca, striker Marco Branca, midfielder Attilio Lombardo, Brazilian defensive midfielder Toninho Cerezo and Ukranian attacking midfielder Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko, Sampdoria were strong contenders in every competition.

They had a great season under the Serbian coach Boskov and won away matches against their rivals AC Milan, Inter Milan and Napoli, while drawing even against Juventus.

Their home matches also went smoothly, losing only one game their entire season against local rival Genoa.

Sampdoria collected 51 points, five points ahead of Milan who took second place, securing their first ever Serie A title and qualifying for the Champions League.

Vialli became the top goal scorer of the season for scoring 19 goals.

Champions League 1992

Sampdoria played in the Champions league 1992 with great expectations after their Serie A performance. The team managed to make it to the final, where they lost 1-0 against Barcelona’s dream team. The winning goal was scored by Barcelona defender Ronals Coeman during overtime.

Twins split

The partnership between the strikers ended when Vialli joined Juventus after the Champions League final. He stuck to the team for four years.

Mancini stayed on at Sampdoria until his move to Lazio in 1997.

The Vialli-Mancini partnership will always be remembered for their legendary contribution to the history of Italian football.