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Long-time champion of Italy, the second division club of Turin, the Serie B game against Cesena was postponed just a few minutes before the start of the match - this decision was made after the tragic deaths of two young players from the team.
The match was supposed to start on Friday at 9 PM local time, however, it was decided to postpone it just before the match. The electronic scoreboard at the Turin Olympic Stadium read that the "Juventus match will not take place due to a serious tragedy." The reasons for such events were unclear for a while, but later the police confirmed that two young players from the leading Serie B Turin club had died.
Tragically, 17-year-old striker Alessio Ferramosca and goalkeeper Riccardo Neri, who would have turned eighteen on Saturday, were found in a water tank near the Vinovo training ground. It is believed that both boys drowned while trying to retrieve footballs that had fallen into the water.
It is speculated that they both climbed over a fence, but then slipped on a plastic cover that held the water in the artificial pond, and were unable to climb out and drowned. A.Ferramosca's death was immediately confirmed after an examination, and attempts to revive R.Neri in the hospital were unsuccessful.
"This is the worst day of my life. I knew these boys and saw them here, so it will be strange that we will not see them anymore. I am shocked. Please do not ask me to speak, I cannot do it now," said former legendary Juventus defender Ciro Ferrara, who currently heads the club's youth structure.
Another club legend, goalkeeper coach Michelangelo Rampulla, was also shocked by the tragedy: "Last season, Neri was one of the leaders who helped the team win the youth championship. I saw talent in him and wanted him to train with the main team next season. He would have been ready to work with Gianluigi Buffon. It is such an absurd tragedy, simply incomprehensible. When you think about what happened to us this year, you wonder what else could happen?"
The year 2006 was tragic for the Turin club. Although the team once again won the Italian Serie A championship, due to a corruption scandal, the club was relegated to Serie B, and the club's director and former player Gianluca Pessotto is still trying to recover after almost losing his life falling from the fourth floor of the club headquarters.
In memory of A.Ferramosca, born in Turin, whose father Lucio is the president of the amateur club "Atletico Mirafiori", and R.Neri, born in Florence, all Serie A and Serie B teams will honor them with a minute of silence before the matches and players wearing black armbands.
