Tributes have been paid to Salvatore Schillaci after the former Italy forward died at the age of 59. Schillaci became synonymous with Italia 90, scoring six goals to win the Golden Boot, and will be remembered as the face of the tournament.

Schillaci, whose clubs included Juventus and Inter, was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2022 and taken to hospital in Palermo last week. Inter said he made an “entire nation dream during the magic nights of Italia 90” and Juventus referenced that World Cup in their tribute.

“We immediately fell in love with Toto,” the club said. “With his desire, his story, his passion. We at Juve were lucky enough to get excited about him before, in that incredible summer of 1990, the whole of Italy did.”

The tournament in Italy would prove the zenith of a career in which ­Schillaci – known as Totò – won 16 caps. If Luciano Pavarotti’s Nessun Dorma was its soundtrack, pictures of a wild-eyed Schillaci’s goal celebrations would prove its abiding images. As well as collecting the Golden Boot, the Sicilian won the Golden Ball, awarded to the World Cup’s outstanding player. He finished as runner-up to Germany’s World Cup-winning captain Lothar Matthäus in the Ballon d’Or.

Schillaci’s attacking partnership with Roberto Baggio blossomed after he stepped off the bench to register his opening goal of Italia 90 against Austria. That it was the first header he had scored all season emphasised that this was a most unlikely hero, destined also to score against Czechoslovakia, Uruguay, the Republic of Ireland, Argentina and, in the third-place playoff, England.

Born in poverty amid a mafia-dominated Palermo slum where his father worked as a rubbish collector, he did not have a formal school education but always said football kept him out of trouble. After graduating from earning the equivalent of £1.50 per goal scored for a local team, he spent the early years of his career as a lower-division striker.

Then, in 1989, Schillaci became Serie B’s top scorer and, having caught the eye of the Juventus manager Giovanni Trapattoni, swapped modest Sicilian Messina for life in Turin.

Short, swarthy and sometimes hot-tempered, he was sharp, mobile and an opportunistic finisher blessed with an impressive change of pace and obsessed with the goalscoring art. Schillaci scored 21 times for Juventus in the 1989-90 session while collecting Uefa Cup and Coppa Italia winners’ medals.

It earned him a slot in Azeglio Vicini’s Italy squad. At the age of 25 his moment had arrived.

“I got the last place in the squad so I didn’t expect to be on the bench, I thought I’d be watching in the stands,” Schillaci said in 2014. When Vicini instructed him to prepare to come on against Austria, his first reaction was: “Do you mean me?”

By the time he scored his final goal of Italia 90, a penalty that secured a 2-1 victory against England, televised replays of Schillaci’s goals had lit up living rooms across the world.

No viewer could have known the career of a man who joked “I must be dreaming” and “I’m not a star” had already peaked.

Although a move to Inter, where he won another Uefa Cup, followed, Schillaci scored only one more goal for Italy and did not play at another major international tournament. After ending his career in Japan – where, as the first Italian to play in the J-League he helped Jubilo Iwata to the 1997 title – he returned to Sicily to help run the Palermo academy which, as a child, had offered him purpose, structure and direction.

Apparently unconcerned with the trappings of fame – although he did appear on an odd reality television programme and even tried his hand at acting – he relished living a normal life but admitted that memories of Italia 90 made him “very happy”.

On Wednesday, Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, posted on X: “A football icon is leaving us. Salvatore Schillaci, known by everyone as Totò, the striker from the magic nights of Italia 90 with our national team. Thanks for the emotions you gave us, for having made us dream, celebrate, embrace, and wave our national flag. Bon voyage, champion.”

The Serie A president, Lorenzo Casini, said: “He was a great player, who lit up those ‘Notti Magiche’ [magic nights] at Italia ‘90 … His desire to make it at the top level in football was constant and he will continue to be an inspiration for the many children who dream of playing in Serie A.”