RIP: Davide Astori, 'the best expression of an old-fashioned world'

Rarely has the passing of a player been taken harder than the sudden death of Italian defender Davide Astori, who died in his sleep at the hotel, where Fiorentina, which he captained, wasstaying as it prepared to play Udinese on Sunday.

In ricordo del #capitano Davide #Astori pic.twitter.com/6OiBL4VVAZ

— ACF Fiorentina (@acffiorentina) March 4, 2018

Astori’s death was ruled to have been of natural causes, “cardiac circulatory collapse” — a type of heart attack.

Fiorentina’s game against Udinese was postponed, as were all other Serie A games across Italy on Sunday. Images of shaken players at the Genoa-Cagliari match showed how upset players were across Italywere about the death of the popular Astori, who was 31 and played 14 games for Italy.

He left his partner Francesca Fioretti and a 2-year-old daughter, Vittoria.

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon paid tribute to Astori:

“Ciao dear Asto.

“I rarely publicly express my thoughts on a person, because I always allowed the beautyand unique nature of rapports, of reciprocal respect and affection, to avoid being used or misused by those who don’t have the decency to respect certain bonds.

“In your case, I feel theneed to make an exception to the rule, because you have a young wife and family who are suffering, but above all a little girl, who deserves to know that her father was in every way A GOOD PERSON… aTRULY GOOD PERSON…

“You were the best expression of an old-fashioned world, one that people have left behind, with values like altruism, elegance, politeness and respect towardsothers.

“Compliments genuinely, you were one of the best sporting figures I ever came up against.

“R.I.P. Your crazy Gigi.”

Ciao caro Asto,difficilmente ho espresso pubblicamente un pensiero riguardo una persona, perché ho sempre lasciato che la bellezza e l’unicità di rapporti, di reciproca stima e affetto, non venisserostrumentalizzati o gettati in pasto a chi non ha la delicatezza per rispettare certi legami. Nel tuo caso, sento di fare un’eccezione alla mia regola, perché hai una moglie giovane e deifamiliari che staranno soffrendo,ma soprattutto la tua piccola bimba, merita di sapere che il suo papà era a tutti gli effetti una PERSONA PERBENE…..una GRANDE PERSONA PERBENE….eril’espressione migliore di un mondo antico, superato, nel quale valori come l’altruismo, l’eleganza, l’educazione e il rispetto verso il prossimo, la facevano da padroni. Complimenti davvero, sei statauna delle migliori figure sportive nella quale mi sono imbattuto. R.I.P. Il tuo folle Gigi.

A post shared by Gianluigi Buffon (@gianluigibuffon) on Mar 4, 2018 at 4:41am PST