Graeme Souness shed a tear as he delivered an emotional tribute to Gianluca Vialli today.

The former Italy, Juventus and Chelsea striker died today aged 58 following a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer, the Italian Football Federation announced.

Vialli, who went on to enjoy huge success as Chelsea manager following his glittering playing career, was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2017 and announced he had been given the all-clear in 2020 after treatment at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.

He was re-diagnosed with the disease in 2021 and announced last month that he had stepped down from his role as Italy’s national team delegation chief.

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported before Christmas that his 87-year-old mother Maria Teresa and brother Nino had travelled to be with Vialli in a London hospital.

Speaking to Sky Sports just moments after Vialli's passing, Souness said: "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.

"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."

He continued: "I'm no doctor really but when I looked at him I thought I saw a man who was still in the fight when he was here during the Euros and they managed to win it.

"I think it's so typical of him that he kept it very private, very personal and he took it on as I'd expect him to take it on. It was his fight, wanted to deal with it himself, didn't want to burden other people with it."