Fiorentina and Cagliari retire number 13 shirt in memory of Davide Astori
The Italy defender died at the age of 31 on Sunday.
Fiorentina and Cagliari have retired their number 13 shirt in memory of Davide Astori, the Italian clubs have announced.
The 31-year-old was found dead in his hotel room in Udine on Sunday, hours before Fiorentina were due to face Udinese in a Serie A fixture.
All of Sunday’s seven Serie A games were postponed as a result and tributes from across the footballing world poured in for the defender, who won 14 caps for Italy.
And on Tuesday Fiorentina and Cagliari, Astori’s club between 2008 and 2016, announced they had retired the number 13 shirt 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.”
Fiorentina announced on Sunday morning that Astori had died following a “sudden illness”, and a day later prosecutors opened a culpable homicide case over his death.
A post mortem will be performed on Tuesday with Astori’s funeral being held at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence on Thursday morning.
