TURIN – De Andrè rightly argued that it takes a lot, too much courage, to die in May. Not that doing it on 25 April, three months before being 24, ask for less. Rather. But Andrea Fortunato he had courage and when he finished he could build it himself and give it to others. His teammates know it well, that one knows it well Juventus which twenty-five years ago planted the seeds for the most glorious quarter of a century in society, whose fruits in terms of values, sense of belonging and ethics still ripen today. And one of those seeds is that of Andrea who has contributed greatly to forging the character of that Juventus, that of the league title, the Champions of Rome and all the rest.
That shield, the first of the era Lippiwas dedicated to him. But that championship was already his, in that group there was the strength that he had given to his companions. Yes, well, he didn’t even have a minute of presence on the pitch and he had never managed to train with the team that season, but he lived with the team and his battle against leukemia was another championship in which all Juventus was committed together with him. And how many energies, how many motivations did he give to those players who were cementing themselves around the charisma of Gianluca Vialli, to the source talent of Del Piero, to the self-denial of radishes, whom Fortunato considered an acquired brother, and to a series of players who were building that championship on the profound human qualities even before the unquestionable footballing qualities.
They often heard each other. Everyone called him, everyone had established a personal relationship with him, but the embrace was collective. But it was not the compassionate and tearful assistance to a sick friend that had settled between the team and Fortunato in the eleven months of illness, diagnosed on May 20, 1994 in the University Division of Hematology of Molinette in Turin, where they wrote the chilling sentence : acute lymphoid leukemia.
Fortunato informed about the evolution of evil, about his progress achieved with the tears, on the psychological collapses, on the intense pain felt, on the anxiety of the nights that sometimes never passed. But his were not medical bulletins, it was a sports report. Andrea had turned almost immediately, leaving the despair to one side and facing leukemia in the only way he had always faced the important challenges of his life: like a game. «I’ll win this»he always said.
He spoke to his teammates with a language and football references that rang in them even during training and during games. And how can you even touch the idea of giving up when you think about the words of your friend who fought for his life. Every effort, even the most suffocating, was surmountable if they thought of Andrea.
And Andrea meanwhile played his game between continuous reversals in front, a good radio commentator would have said. Hopes after her sister’s bone marrow transplant, which however had not worked, then the sudden ray of light when her father’s had taken root and Fortunato had even left the hospital in Perugia, where he was being treated, and had started a rehabilitation process , welcome and pampered in the Perugia Calcio gym.
He had also managed to review the whole team, joining them in Genoa, before the game against Sampdoria. It was February 25th, exactly two months before he died. With his father he had traveled from Perugia to Genoa, where he had played in rossoblù, and had stopped at the Novotel to embrace his companions. “You recognize me”, he had said shy, with a hat on his head, his face made rounder than the cure, but the same smile, sunny, disarming: “You are going very fast, keep it up that I will feel a little bit like this”. It had been a moving meeting, but also full of energy. And the day after Juventus had won 1-0 with a goal ten from the end of Vialli, the last to give up in the name of Andrea. Shortly thereafter the news that the disease had started again cowardly on the counterattack. The team knew and the team had decided to take the Scudetto before the leukemia took Andrea. He had to live that party, maybe even on television, but he had to see it.
And on April 25, when the terrible news had caught Juventus players scattered across the various national teams, the championship was very close, but had not yet been won. It was the biggest regret for that group that by beating Parma 4-0 on 21 May would have won the title. Not even a month had passed, they had almost made it. And Andrea had made it, with his humanity and his courage, to build the character of that team that won everything and today, after all, still lives on that moral force for which we never give up, until at the end. And that was not a Scudetto dedicated to Fortunato, but a Scudetto of Fortunato.
