The Other Schillaci: From Lazio to Palermo's Streets

Maurizio Schillaci was a footballer from Palermo and the cousin of Totò Schillaci, the star of Italy's 1990 World Cup. He came through Palermo's youth ranks and in 1984 joined Licata, where coach Zdeněk Zeman worked with him. He scored 22 goals in 66 matches there, and Zeman later called him a gifted player and a phenomenon in technical terms, someone who could have played for a bigger club.

In 1986 Lazio signed him, with Eugenio Fascetti as coach, while the club was in Serie B and carrying a points penalty from a betting scandal. Schillaci played 11 matches and scored once, against Cagliari on 21 December 1986. An untreated injury limited his season, and Lazio sold him at the end of it. He then moved to Messina, where he was reunited with Totò, and later to Juve Stabia in 1989. Doctors found a torn tendon, but by then it was too late to restore his fitness. He went back to Licata in 1992, and his career was over.

Avvenire, in 2016, wrote that he fell from glory to the abyss in a few years. The paper says he became addicted to cocaine and heroin, his marriage ended, contacts and contracts disappeared and his earnings were gone. He ended up homeless in Palermo, living off begging, and also spent time in prison. The article does not give dates for how long he lived on the streets. When Totò invited him to coach children at his football school, some parents objected to a former addict being there, and Maurizio left at once.

His life was the subject of a documentary, Fuorigioco, by director Davide Vigore, made with Domenico Rizzo. It follows him through a dark, hidden Palermo, alone in a crowd. Vigore said he wanted to ask what remains after success, and that loneliness without a place of one's own, surrounded by people, is devastating. He added that he and Schillaci learned to trust each other during filming.