Thousands of fans and football stars across the world attended the funeral of Italian footballer and Fiorentina captain Davide Astori, which took place today in Florence, Italy.

The 31-year-old defender died in his sleep at the La di Moret hotel ahead of their Serie A fixture against Udinese last Sunday. He is believed to have died from a cardiac arrest.


His team-mates alongside other Italian footballers and coaches were pictured arriving at the Santa Croce church in Florence ahead of the service, which began at 10am in Italy.
Read here: How he died




Thousands of fans were also pictured in the streets to pay their last respect to the late footballer.



Astori's parents and his partner Francesca Fioretti and their daughter, Vittoria. were seen making their way into the church.



The mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella and his wife also attended the funeral service.

Astori who started his playing career in the Milan youth academy, made his Serie A debut with Cagliari in 2008. He later played for Roma before joining Fiorentina, where he had been since 2016 until his sudden death.


On Tuesday, Fiorentina and Cagliari announced that they had retired the No 13 shirt in honour of their former player.

Fiorentina tweeted: 'In honour of Davide Astori's memory, Cagliari and Fiorentina 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.'


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If not that he is a sport man, they would have said he didn't do enough exercise. It still baffles me footballers die of cardiac attack.
RIP Dave

xgada:
If not that he is a sport man, they would have said he didn't do enough exercise. It still baffles me footballers die of cardiac attack.
RIP Dave

well spoken.

OMG. Cardiac arrest

xgada:
If not that he is a sport man, they would have said he didn't do enough exercise. It still baffles me footballers die of cardiac attack.
RIP Dave

I said the same when Keshi and Amodu died, now we have another sportsperson die of heart attack, it's a case of over-working the heart muslces

i just tire

xgada:
If not that he is a sport man, they would have said he didn't do enough exercise. It still baffles me footballers die of cardiac attack.
RIP Dave