Davide Astori funeral: Italian football pays its respects to tragic Fiorentina captain

Thousands of fans lined the streets while Astori’s team mates arrived at the Santa Croce church ahead of the 10am service.

Astori was found dead in his hotel room ahead of Fiorentina’s Serie A clash with Udinese. He leaves behind long-term partner Francesca Fioretti and two-year-old daughter Vittoria.

HOW DID DAVIDE ASTORI DIE? THE CAUSE OF DEATH EXPLAINED

Fans fell silent upon the arrival of Astori’s hearse before launching in chants of ‘grande capitano’, which translates as ‘great captain’.

A banner held up by supporters read: ‘Per sempre nostro capitano (forever our captain)’.

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was visibly upset as was defender Giorgio Chiellini.

Both attended the service having beaten Tottenham at Wembley in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Astori’s Fiorentina team mate Milan Badelj read out a message on behalf of the club.

He said: “You are the brother or the son that everyone would have wanted to have.

“Your parents didn’t make any mistake with you, not even the tiniest bit. You’re not like others, you are football, the real one, the pure one of children.

“Our thoughts go out to your mother and your father, to your brothers, to Francesca and to Princess Vicky. You were a man with a capital M and we will tell her. You are the light for all of us.”

Fiorentina’s game, along with all others in Serie A were postponed on Sunday.

An initial autopsy has suggested the defender suffered a cardiac arrest.

Fiorentina players and staff paid tribute to their captain at the club’s Artemio Franchi stadium earlier this week.

Scarves, banners and flowers adorn fences outside the ground while the players hung up two signed Astori jerseys as well as a large photo of the defender.

His club have also retired their number 13 shirt in memory of the Italian international.

Cagliari, Astori’s club between 2008 and 2016, have done the same in honour of their former player.

Fiorentina tweeted: “In honour of Davide Astori’s memory, @CagliariCalcio and @ACFFiorentina have decided to retire the No.13 shirt.”

Cagliari, having changed their Twitter handle to ‘Ciao Davide’, added: “To honour their memory and make indelible the memory of David Astori, @acffiorentina and @CagliariCalcio have decided to jointly withdraw the jersey with the number 13.”

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Post Author: martin

Martin is an enthusiastic programmer, a webdeveloper and a young entrepreneur. He is intereted into computers for a long time. In the age of 10 he has programmed his first website and since then he has been working on web technologies until now. He is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of BriefNews.eu and PCHealthBoost.info Online Magazines. His colleagues appreciate him as a passionate workhorse, a fan of new technologies, an eternal optimist and a dreamer, but especially the soul of the team for whom he can do anything in the world.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.