Luciano was born in Asmara to Vittorio Vassallo, an officer in the Italian rifle regiment and an Eritrean woman called Mebrak Abraham.

[4] Luciano initially began playing football for Stella Asmarina, a team set up by the Vicarage Apostolic exclusively for Italo-Eritrean children.

[5] He started his footballing career as a left-back, before being moved to centre back then eventually into midfield where he became known as an advanced playmaker with a powerful shot.

Luciano credited his experience as a mechanic for getting a job at the associated cotton plantation, which allowed him to receive a salary ten times that of a normal worker.

He was reinstated as national team manager in 1978 but, two weeks after a historic win over East Germany, he fled to Djibouti then to Rome, where he had sent his family to safety some months earlier.

[5] In exile in Italy, Luciano began repairing cars in Ostia before opening his own garage and finally obtaining citizenship.