Graeme Souness couldn’t hold back the tears when giving an emotional tribute to his former teammate, Gianluca Vialli.
It was announced this morning that the footballing great had passed away at the age of 56. As expected, tributes to Vialli have come flooding in, Souness was just one of the many players who spoke about the former striker.
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The two played together at Sampdoria for two years in the 1980s after the Scottish midfielder left Liverpool.
In an interview with Sky Sports, Souness broke down in tears as he recounted the years they spent together.
Graeme Souness with a touching tribute to his friend Gianluca Vialli ❤️ pic.twitter.com/jqNmxJq0MP
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) January 6, 2023
“I’ve only had the news ten minutes ago… sorry, I’ve only had the news ten minutes ago and I can’t tell you how good a guy he was.
“Forget football for a minute, he was just a gorgeous soul. He was a truly nice human being.” Souness said.
“I went to Italy when I was 31 years old. He was 20 and he was just fabulous to be around.
“Such a fun-loving guy, he was full of mischief. He was such a warm individual and a fabulous player.
“But I don’t want to talk about his footballing, I want to talk about him as a human being.
“Because I don’t remember when I hear his name, and I’m going to hear a lot of his name, correctly so and people paying plaudits to him, magnificent things about his playing ability… yeah – but what a human being – above all that, what a human being.
“And my condolences go to his family and his wife and they’ve been blessed that their paths crossed.
“The kids were blessed they had a dad like that, his wife was blessed to have a man like that.”
The interview was then cut short as the Scotsman struggled to hold back tears.