{"id":407969,"date":"2018-03-08T16:32:22","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T16:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=407969"},"modified":"2018-03-08T16:36:32","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T16:36:32","slug":"thousands-gather-funeral-fiorentinas-astori-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/03\/thousands-gather-funeral-fiorentinas-astori-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands gather for funeral of Fiorentina’s Astori [Photos]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stars from across Italian football and beyond are in Florence for the funeral of Davide Astori, the Fiorentina captain who was found dead in his hotel room on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old was discovered hours before his team were scheduled to play Udinese in a\u00a0Serie A\u00a0match. He is believed to have died from a cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n

His team-mates were pictured arriving at the\u00a0Santa Croce church in Florence ahead of the service, which began at 10am in Italy, while thousands of fans lined the streets and filled one of the main squares, some arriving as early as three hours before the funeral started.<\/p>\n

They lit flares which formed a moving backdrop of purple smoke as his coffin was carried out after the service, which lasted for almost two hours.<\/p>\n

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\"Davide<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Davide Astori’s coffin leaves the church<\/strong> with a backdrop of purple pyro released by the thousands of Fiorentina fans in Florence<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"People<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

People gathered at the\u00a0Santa Croce church in Florence as early as three hours prior to the funeral service starting\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Astori's<\/strong><\/p>\n

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