Davide Astori, Italy and Fiorentina’s player left a shocker as the news of his demise shocked the football community.
His absence at the restaurant of the hotel in Udine on Sunday morning which was rather unusual made his team mates curious and uneasy, sensing that something was wrong.
The team’s masseur went to Astori’s room to see him so as to ensure everything was okay. Tragically, the centre-back had died in the middle of the night from what his club have described as a “sudden illness”.
The terrible news did spread like wild fire leaving his friends, family, club and country in a state of shock.
The game which was slated for Sunday afternoon at the Dacia Arena against Udinese was called off. “In times like this everything else loses its importance, “tweeted Udinese coach Massimo Oddo. “I am shocked by this terrible tragedy.”
Fiorentina’s goal keeper Marco Sportiello was with the deceased playing Play-station until 23:30 the night before.
The former Prime Minister of Italy and ex-mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi tweeted: “It seems impossible to me. I cannot believe it.”
As the ugly news filter across the globe, Astori’s former team Cagliari, were on the verge of taking the kick off in a Serie A match against Genoa. The players got wind of the tragic news during the warm up, and Genoa’s goal tender Mattia Perin broke into tears while former Cagliari manager Massimiliano Allegri, now Juventus manager said: “coaching him was a privilege”.
The current coach of Cagliari Diego Lopez and his current assistant Alessandro Agostini played alongside Astori. Others who played with him are veterans’ duo Andrea Cossu and Marco Sau. The entire team were frequent visitors to Astori’s ice cream parlour Cremoso, which he partnered with former team mate Lorenzo Ariaudo, now at Serie B leaders Frosinone.
Astori had 14 caps for the Italy national team of which seven caps was during his stay at Cagliari.
In 2014 Astori moved to AS Roma where he followed Radja Nainggolan to the Italian capital with the hope to fight for the league title and play Champions League football.
A great player and an even greater person,” the Belgium international posted on Instagram. Rudi Garcia, former Roma manager during Astori’s time at the Stadio Olympico, called him “an exemplary professional and guy”.
On Sunday prior to the match’s scheduled time, the announcer relayed the news of the postponement of the Genoa-Cagliari game to the fans at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris, the crowd applauded his memory.
Shortly after, the president of the Italian PFA Damiano Tommasi called off all of Sunday’s games, which included the Milan derby.it was obviously the right steps taken by the PFA.
Astori joined Fiorentina on loan initially in 2015 before making the move permanent in 2016. The president of the club, Andea Della Valle has said that Astori would have signed a new contract with the club on Monday after an initial meeting as shifted from Thursday due to the chaotic weather situation.
Bunches of flowers were seen outside the stadio Artemio Franchi. A banner was also tied to the ground of the gates which held the caption: “Ciao Capitano.”
Astori’s demise has brought back memories in Italy of the deaths of Perugia’s Renato Curi in 1977, Livorno’s Piermario Morosini in 2012 and AS Roma’s Giuliano Taccola in 1969.
Astori leaves behind a beautiful wife Francesca and a two-year old daughter Vittoria. His death has dealt the football world a terrible blow with the Italian community and his family the worst hit.
He was a great personality and his legacies will hopefully remain un-erased.