Astori Davide
Davide Astori was an Italian professional footballer who played as a central defender. After playing youth football for Pontisola, Astori started his senior career with Milan, spending loan spells with Pizzighettone and Cremonese. 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. He made his international debut for Italy in 2011 and represented his country 14 times, scoring one goal. Astori died from sudden cardiac arrest at the age of 31, being found dead in his hotel room prior to a match.
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This shirt is a Limited Edition shirt made by team’s supplier Puma to celebrate the 30th anniversary since Italy World Cup in 1982. The style recall the same 1982 style and it has inside the neck all of the World Cup 1982 Italy Team’s games and results printed. It has been worn by the team only against England in a friendly game that took place in Zurich on Aug. 15th 2012.
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Astori played 4 games for Italy’s under-18 team, beginning in 2004. He did not receive any further call-up at higher levels of youth international football. Astori received his first call-up for the senior team under newly appointed coach Cesare Prandelli who named him in the squad for a friendly against Côte d’Ivoire, to be played on 10 August 2010; however, he was left on the bench as an unused substitute. He made his full debut for Italy on 29 March 2011, in a 2–0 friendly win against Ukraine in Kiev. He came on as a 17th-minute substitute for the injured Giorgio Chiellini but was sent off with 15 minutes remaining in the second half after receiving two yellow cards. Astori was a member of the 23-man Italy squad that took part at the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup under Prandelli; Italy reached the semi-finals, only to suffer a penalty shoot-out defeat to Spain following a 0–0 draw after extra time, on 27 June 2013. On 30 June 2013, Astori scored the opener against Uruguay in the third place match after knocking in the rebound from Alessandro Diamanti’s free kick, as Italy won 3–2 on penalties to win the bronze-medal, following a 2–2 draw after extra time; this was his only international goal, and he became the first Cagliari player to score for Italy since Luigi Riva had done so 40 years earlier, in a 2–0 victory over Switzerland on 20 October 1973. In total, Astori made 14 senior appearances for Italy between 2011 and 2017.
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On 4 August 2015, Astori signed on loan for Fiorentina until the end of the season with an obligation to buy. He made his Fiorentina debut on 23 August in the 2–0 victory against Milan, coming on as a substitute for Facundo Roncaglia in the 59th minute. Astori’s first game after signing for the club on a permanent basis came in the opening game of the season, starting the whole game, in a 2–1 loss against Juventus. This was followed up by keeping a clean sheet in the next three matches. However, he suffered a muscle injury that kept him out for two matches. It wasn’t until on 2 October 2016 when Astori returned to the starting line–up against Torino and started the match, as Fiorentina lost 2–1. Three weeks later on 26 October 2016, he scored his first goal for the club, in a 1–1 draw against Crotone. Following his return, Astori continued to regain his first team place, playing in the centre–back position for the next three months. This lasted until he missed one match for picking up five yellow cards and served a suspension against Pescara on 1 February 2017. After serving a one match suspension, Astori returned to the starting line–up, in a 4–0 loss against Roma on 7 February 2017. He then helped the club keep four consecutive clean sheets between 3 March 2017 and 2 April 2017. Astori then played an important role in the UEFA Europa League, setting up two goals for Fiorentina that saw the club progress to the knockout stage. However, they were eliminated in the knockout stage after losing 4–3 to Borussia Mönchengladbach in the UEFA Europa League Round of 32. He then scored his second goal of the season, in a 5–4 win against Inter Milan on 22 April 2017. Despite being suspended on two occasions later in the 2016–17 season, including a second bookable offence against Palermo on 30 April 2017, Astori went on to make forty appearances and scoring two times in all competitions.
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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, organizational 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. Astori and his partner Francesca Fioretti had a daughter, Vittoria, who was two years old at the time of his death in March 2018. 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 and Italy Team went in to the pitch wearing Davide’s shirt number 13 for the National anthem.
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At the beginning of 2017–18 season, Astori was appointed as the team captain following the departure of Gonzalo Rodríguez. He captained his first match at Fiorentina, starting the whole game, in a 3–0 loss against Inter Milan in the opening game of the season. Three weeks later on 10 September 2017, Astori scored his first goal of the season, in a 5–0 win against Hellas Verona. Since the start of the 2017–18 season, he continued to regain his first team place, playing in the centre–back position. Astori then helped the club’s defence keep four league consecutive clean sheets between 3 December 2017 and 22 December 2017. Since the start of the 2017–18 season, he started in every match until he missed one match for picking up five yellow cards and served a suspension against Sampdoria on 21 January 2018. After serving a one match suspension, Astori returned to the starting line–up, in a 4–1 loss against Hellas Verona on 28 January 2018. On 25 February 2018, Astori made his final appearance for the club, playing the full match in a 1–0 home win over Chievo; six minutes into the match, Astori made a run forward, joining the attack, and passed the ball to Cristiano Biraghi, who scored the only goal with a long-range shot.
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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”.
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This Fiorentina’s captain armband usually worn by the captain German Pezzella was a big matter of controversy at the beginning of the season. Since 2018-2019 season all of the Italian Serie A teams had to use the same captain armband with “CAPITANO” printed on it, without brands printed on and without any player’s customizations like many players used to do in the past seasons. But Fiorentina team in order to commemorate Davide Astori, the Fiorentina former captain that passed on March 4th 2018, released for the season 2018-2019 a special commemorative captain armband with “DA13” (Davide Astori 13) printed, together with the logos of the four Firenze’s districts as Astori was used to wear while he was playing. But the Italian “Lega Calcio” didn’t allow the Fiorentina’s captain German Pezzella to use the band. Pezzella anyway wore the armband and both him and the team were fined. After a big controversy came up with all of the other Serie A teams involved to support Fiorentina, the team has been given an exception to use this special commemorative armband.
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On 4 August 2015, Astori signed on loan for Fiorentina until the end of the season with an obligation to buy. He made his Fiorentina debut on 23 August in the 2–0 victory against Milan, coming on as a substitute for Facundo Roncaglia in the 59th minute. At the beginning of 2017–18 season, Astori was appointed as the team captain following the departure of Gonzalo Rodríguez.
