The Italian Luigi Gigi Riva, legendary Cagliari striker and all-time top scorer for the Italian national team, died this Monday at the age of 79 at the Brotzu Hospital in Cagliari, where he was admitted due to a heart attack that he suffered this Sunday.

Italian football is in mourning again. To the recent deaths of Gianluca Vialli and Sinisa Mihajlovic, this Monday was added that of the team’s most important forward, the Azzurra’s all-time top scorer with 35 goals in 42 games, 2 more than Giuseppe Meazza and 4 more than Adolfo Baloncieri.

Approximately an hour before his death, the hospital where he was admitted issued a medical bulletin that revealed a certain optimism when talking about a patient who was not in critical condition, although he may need cardiac intervention.

Gigi (Leggiuno, Lombardy, November 7, 1944), nicknamed Rombo di tuono, something like the ‘rumble of thunder’, was the current honorary president of Cagliari, the club of his life in which he was throughout his career, from 1962 until 1976, playing 315 games and scoring 164 goals. He led the Sardinian club in its golden era, the one in which he lifted his only Scudetto of his own in the 1969-70 season.

He made his debut with Italy in 1965, won the 1968 European Championship and was runner-up in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, in which he scored the decisive goal to advance to the final. In addition, he was part of the ‘Azzurra’ coaching staff from 1990 to 2013, participating in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, which Italy ended up winning.

There are already many Italian teams that have mourned the death of one of the legends of calcium. The first is his Cagliari, which will remind him eternally: “Forever GIGI RIVA”, the Sardinian team expressed in their X account. La Fiore, Inter, Udinese and Roma, among many others, joined in the condolences.

Also some legends like Dino Zoff: “I lose a great friend, we had a long life together. From the military to many memories in the national team. Infinite sadness, I am deeply sad, I cannot speak.”

And the President of the Government, Giorgia Meloni: “A great athlete leaves us who marked the history of football and our team. May the earth be light to you, champion,” she published in ‘X’.