The death of Gianluca Vialli on January 6 at the London facility where the former player was being treated for pancreatic cancer was a heartbreak for Roberto Mancini, coach of the Italian national team: "It is a big loss for his family, for me and for Italian football," Mancini said. It's a terrible moment, but we must go on." Roberto considered Gianluca to be more than just a friend. A brother; the two had been teammates since they were young men on the national team, and later the two were inseparable as the "Twins of the Goal" on the Sampdoria club that won the Scudetto and came within touching distance of the European Cup in the early 1990s. "I was praying for a miracle," Mancini says of his final encounter with his fraternal buddy shortly before New Year's Eve. We ran into each other, spoke, and laughed. He was in a good mood, as he normally is, and that makes you feel better. I was relieved to see him calm. Meanwhile, a minute of silence was observed on Serie A fields to remember Vialli: the former footballer - head of delegation of the Italian national team until a few days before his death - was remembered in particular on the fields of Sampdoria and Juventus, teams in which he played, and in England by Chelsea, a team in which he played and coached in the late 1990s.