Igor Protti Has Died: Cristiano Lucarelli and Livorno React with Emotion

The soccer world bids farewell to Igor Protti, who died at age 58 after a serious illness. The former forward left his mark wherever he played, scoring over 250 goals in his career and finishing as the top scorer from Serie C to Serie A. Protti’s adopted city was Livorno, where he first burst onto the scene by scoring his first professional goals in Serie C, and where he later ended his career, having spent a total of nine seasons and scored over 140 goals in the Amaranto jersey.

“There are people who belong to a team,” reads the statement from the Livorno club, “and then there are people to whom a team belongs. Igor was Livorno. He was Livorno on the field, off the field, in the good times and the hard times. Today we say goodbye to a man who left a mark that time will not erase. No grand words are needed. His name is enough. Goodbye, Igor.”

One of Protti’s closest friends was Cristiano Lucarelli, a former Livorno striker, who remembered him with emotion: “I was at his home a week ago; his condition was very precarious, but he hadn’t lost his will to fight at all,” according to the Corriere della Sera.

“He was certainly an inspiration; the way he faced his illness was a lesson for all of us, and when he walked his daughter down the aisle a few weeks ago, it was as if he wanted to tell us that life should be lived to the fullest until the very end of our days.”