Davide Astori - TheSportsDB.com

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Name
Davide Astori

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60%

Born
Deceased

Birth Place

San Giovanni Bianco, Italy

Position
Defender

Status
Deceased

Ethnicity
White

Team Number

Height
1.85

Weight
78.46

Outfitter

Kit

Side

Agent

Market Value
3,50 Mill. €

Wage Year

Player Manager ID
7983992

Player Cutout

Full Body Render

Sport

Soccer

Team
_Deceased Soccer

2nd Team

League
_No League Soccer

Creative Commons Artwork
No

Description
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Davide Astori (Italian pronunciation: ; 7 January 1987 – 4 March 2018) was an Italian professional footballer who played as a central defender.

After playing youth football for Pontisola and AC Milan, Astori started his senior career at Serie C clubs Pizzighettone and Cremonese, playing one season for each while on loan from Milan. In 2008, Cagliari signed him in a co-ownership deal, before signing him fully from Milan, for whom he never made a first team appearance, in 2011. He later spent loan spells at Roma and Fiorentina, before signing with the latter club permanently in 2016; he was subsequently named the team's captain in 2017.

Astori made his international debut for Italy in 2011 and represented his country on 14 occasions, scoring one goal, which came in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup third place play off, where he won a bronze medal.

On 4 March 2018, Astori was found dead in his hotel room prior to a league match. His autopsy revealed cardiac arrest as his cause of death.

Style of play
Astori was a tall, consistent, tenacious, attentive, and physically strong left-footed central defender, with good aerial ability and heading accuracy, which made him a goal threat on offensive set pieces; although he was not the quickest defender, he also possessed good leadership qualities, positional sense, organisational skills, distribution, and technique, which enabled him to play the ball out or start attacking plays from the back. A versatile defender, he was comfortable playing as left-sided centre-back in both a three-man or a four-man defensive line.

Personal life
Astori spoke about his fondness of Bergamo, saying: "Let's say it's always nice, I leave my childhood, my family. It is a place that I will cherish in my life." He also spoke about his interests outside of football, saying: "More design because it is less difficult to understand (jokes, ed). Interior design, my brother is an architect. I started to bring some design magazines to training camp with me, my passion started."

Astori and his partner Francesca Fioretti had a daughter, Vittoria, who was two years old at the time of his death. Their daughter was born in Florence.

Death and legacy

A memorial wall dedicated to Davide Astori, Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence. "Ciao Capitano" became a farewell to Astori.
On 4 March 2018, Astori died in his sleep while staying in a hotel in Udine prior to Fiorentina's match against Udinese, proven to be caused by cardiac arrest determined from an autopsy conducted two days later. A club statement said "Fiorentina are profoundly shaken and forced to announce that their captain Davide Astori has died." His former Cagliari teammate and coach Diego López and former Fiorentina teammate Carlos Sánchez collapsed to the ground after hearing the news of his death. All Serie A and Serie B matches scheduled for 4 March were postponed. His death had caused shock across the footballing world, and many coaches and players paid their respects. UEFA later announced on Twitter that a minute's silence was to be observed before every European match scheduled for that week. Cagliari and Fiorentina both retired the number 13 jersey worn by Astori in his honour (Astori wore this number as it was the number that his idol, Alessandro Nesta, had also worn throughout his career). He was buried at San Pellegrino Terme cemetery on 8 March 2018. Fiorentina's next home game against Benevento, on 11 March, was paused for 60 seconds at the 13 minute mark in his honour, while children from both teams entered wearing Astori's jersey to pay tribute to him; Fiorentina won the match 1–0, with the only goal coming from Vitor Hugo, who celebrated after scoring by saluting a T-shirt bearing Astori's image.

Later that month, Fiorentina announced that they would rename their training ground "Centro Sportivo Davide Astori" after Astori. Also later that month, in Italy's friendly with Argentina on 23 March, as well as Italy's friendly against England on 27 March, the Italy squad shirts were embossed with, under the crest, "Davide sempre con noi", Italian for "Davide always with us", with the number 13 below. Although Serie A introduced a new ruling ahead of the 2018–19 Serie A season, which introduced a standardised armband for all club captains, Fiorentina's new captain, Germán Pezzella, was granted an exemption by the league, and was allowed to wear a personalised captain's armband in tribute to Astori. Later that year, Astori was inducted into the Fiorentina Hall of Fame.

To commemorate one year since his death, all Serie A matches were stopped at the 13th minute mark on 2 and 3 March 2019.

In April 2019 it was reported that Astori's contract would be renewed for life with all the money going to his wife and child, but it was later revealed to be a hoax.

In May 2019, during the 2018 ceremony for new members being inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame, a Fair Play Award in memory of Astori was also awarded for the first time ever; the recipient of the award was Igor Trocchia.

On 2 April 2021, Giorgio Galanti, a former Fiorentina sports consultant, was put on trial for culpable homicide in Astori's death. Galanti had signed off on two different certificates of fitness for Astori to practice football in July 2016 and in July 2017 despite stress tests showing cardiac arrhythmias that should have induced doctors to carry out more in-depth diagnostic tests. On 3 May 2021, Galanti was given a one-year suspended jail sentence, and ordered to pay provisional compensation for damages in the total amount of €1,090,000, of which €250,000 is paid to Astori's partner Francesca Fioretti, €240,000 to his daughter Vittoria, and the remaining €600,000 to his parents Renato and Giovanna, and his brothers Marco and Bruno.

During a reception hosted by the President of Italy Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace following Italy's victory in the UEFA Euro 2020, team captain Giorgio Chiellini in his speech on behalf of his team mates dedicated their victory to Davide Astori, whom the team "would have liked to have here with us today".